Network security through linking vulnerability management and change management

ABSTRACT

A computational instance may contain a plurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of change requests, wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned to a vulnerability group, the vulnerable items represent hardware or software components that exhibit known vulnerabilities, and the change requests represent additions, removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components. The computational instance may further include one or more computing devices configured to: generate a representation of a first graphical user interface containing data related to the vulnerability group, generate a representation of a second graphical user interface that allows specification of change request options, generate a representation of a third graphical user interface with data entry fields for a corresponding change request that are auto-populated based on the data related to the vulnerability group, and add a corresponding change request to the plurality of change requests.

BACKGROUND

Computer networks may include tens, hundreds, or thousands of individualcomputing devices, such as personal computers, laptop computers,servers, virtual machines, storage devices, routers, and so on. Thesecomponents may be geographically distributed across multiple physicallocations. As they may contain or provide access to confidential and/orsensitive information, the security of these devices can be important toindividuals, groups, and organizations.

But with a large and diverse deployment of hardware, operating systems,and software applications, it can be challenging to manage the widearray of threats thereto from misconfigurations, hacking, espionage,etc. Thus, vulnerability assessment systems have been developed toautomatically or semi-automatically calculate the presence and riskassociated with known security vulnerabilities to which the computingdevices on a network may be subject.

It is desirable to be able to address these vulnerabilities in anexpeditious fashion, in order to mitigate their impact on the network,the data stored therein, and users. But the sheer number of computingdevices that are disposed upon even a modestly-sized enterprise networkand the vulnerabilities thereof can easily result in not all of thesevulnerabilities being addressed in a timely manner.

SUMMARY

Vulnerable items in a managed network may include software and/orhardware components that are subject to known vulnerabilities. Thesevulnerable items may be arranged into vulnerability groups, with one ormore vulnerable items per vulnerability group. The vulnerable items insuch a vulnerability group may exhibit more than one vulnerability.

Vulnerable items are addressed by information technology (IT) personnelin various ways. These may involve applying a software patch, removing asoftware package, running a virus scan, applying a mitigating control,and changing a configuration, among other possibilities. In order totrack what changes are to be made to vulnerable items, a change requesttask management system may be used. Each change request specifies adistinct modification or set of modifications to be made to one or morevulnerable items, when the modification(s) should be made, who isresponsible for the modification(s), and so on.

Vulnerable items and change requests are maintained in differentdatabases or database tables, often with little or no coordinationtherebetween. Thus, as the number of vulnerable items scales, it can bedifficult to determine which have been addressed by what changerequests. Failure to properly address a vulnerable item can result in asecurity breach to a network, potentially causing losses in data,assets, and time taken to mitigate the impact of the breach. Therefore,it is desirable for there to be improved systems that better coordinatevulnerable items and change requests. Doing so can have an immediate andbeneficial impact on the security and integrity of the network.

The embodiments herein provide for various ways in which vulnerableitems and change requests can be cross-referenced to one another in anautomated and user-friendly fashion. Through use of graphical userinterfaces and underlying programmatic logic, change requests can begenerated from vulnerability groups with data relevant to themodifications to be made auto-populated from the vulnerability groups.Further, vulnerability groups can be easily associated with existingchange requests, to simplify applying regularly-released third-partypatches, for example. Additional embodiments allow a vulnerability groupto be split into two based on a filter expression or selected vulnerableitems. Different change requests may be associated with each resultingvulnerability group. Furthermore, state transitions of change requestsmay automatically cause state changes for associated vulnerabilitygroups and vice versa.

Accordingly, a first example embodiment may involve a computationalinstance. The computational instance may include persistent storagecontaining a plurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of changerequests, wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned toa vulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable items represent hardwareor software components of a managed network that exhibit knownvulnerabilities, wherein the change requests represent additions,removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components of themanaged network, and wherein the managed network is associated with thecomputational instance. The computational instance may further includeone or more computing devices configured to generate a representation ofa first graphical user interface containing, for the vulnerabilitygroup: (i) an identifier, (ii) a criticality level, (iii) a targetremediation time, (iv) a short description, and (v) a first graphicalelement for specifying a corresponding change request. The one or morecomputing devices may further be configured to provide, to a clientdevice associated with the managed network, the representation of thefirst graphical user interface. The one or more computing devices mayfurther be configured to, in response to receiving, from the clientdevice, an indication that the first graphical element was actuated,generate a representation of a second graphical user interface thatallows specification of change request options including: (i) whetherthe corresponding change request applies to some or all vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) an indication of anurgency of the corresponding change request. The one or more computingdevices may further be configured to provide, to the client device, therepresentation of the second graphical user interface. The one or morecomputing devices may further be configured to, in response toreceiving, from the client device, an indication that the change requestoptions were specified, generate a representation of a third graphicaluser interface with data entry fields that are auto-populated withinformation based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) the criticality level,(iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the short description, andwherein the third graphical user interface also contains a secondgraphical element for creating the corresponding change request. The oneor more computing devices may further be configured to provide, to theclient device, the representation of the third graphical user interface.The one or more computing devices may further be configured to, inresponse to receiving, from the client device, an indication that thesecond graphical element was actuated, add the corresponding changerequest to the plurality of change requests.

A second example embodiment may involve generating a representation of afirst graphical user interface containing, for a vulnerability group:(i) an identifier, (ii) a criticality level, (iii) a target remediationtime, (iv) a short description, and (v) a first graphical element forspecifying a corresponding change request, wherein persistent storagecontains a plurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of changerequests, wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned tothe vulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable items represent hardwareor software components of a managed network that exhibit knownvulnerabilities, and wherein the change requests represent additions,removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components of themanaged network. The second example embodiment may further involveproviding, to a client device associated with the managed network, therepresentation of the first graphical user interface. The second exampleembodiment may further involve, in response to receiving, from theclient device, an indication that the first graphical element wasactuated, generating a representation of a second graphical userinterface that allows specification of change request options including:(i) whether the corresponding change request applies to some or allvulnerable items assigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) anindication of an urgency of the corresponding change request. The secondexample embodiment may further involve providing, to the client device,the representation of the second graphical user interface. The secondexample embodiment may further involve, in response to receiving, fromthe client device, an indication that the change request options werespecified, generating a representation of a third graphical userinterface with data entry fields that are auto-populated withinformation based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) the criticality level,(iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the short description, andwherein the third graphical user interface also contains a secondgraphical element for creating the corresponding change request. Thesecond example embodiment may further involve providing, to the clientdevice, the representation of the third graphical user interface. Thesecond example embodiment may further involve, in response to receiving,from the client device, an indication that the second graphical elementwas actuated, adding the corresponding change request to the pluralityof change requests.

In a third example embodiment, an article of manufacture may include anon-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon programinstructions that, upon execution by a computing system, cause thecomputing system to perform operations in accordance with the firstand/or second example embodiment.

In a fourth example embodiment, a computing system may include at leastone processor, as well as memory and program instructions. The programinstructions may be stored in the memory, and upon execution by the atleast one processor, cause the computing system to perform operations inaccordance with the first and/or second example embodiment.

In a fifth example embodiment, a system may include various means forcarrying out each of the operations of the first and/or second exampleembodiment.

These, as well as other embodiments, aspects, advantages, andalternatives, will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the artby reading the following detailed description, with reference whereappropriate to the accompanying drawings. Further, this summary andother descriptions and figures provided herein are intended toillustrate embodiments by way of example only and, as such, thatnumerous variations are possible. For instance, structural elements andprocess steps can be rearranged, combined, distributed, eliminated, orotherwise changed, while remaining within the scope of the embodimentsas claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic drawing of a computing device, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 2 illustrates a schematic drawing of a server device cluster, inaccordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5A depicts another communication environment involving a remotenetwork management architecture, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 5B is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts a communication environment involving a remote networkmanagement platform, managed network, and third-party vulnerabilitydetection and assessment platform, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts a vulnerability data flow, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts a set of vulnerability factors and configuration itemfactors, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 9A depicts a graphical user interface related to creating a changerequest from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 9B depicts another graphical user interface related to creating achange request from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 9C depicts another graphical user interface related to creating achange request from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 9D depicts another graphical user interface related to creating achange request from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 9E depicts another graphical user interface related to creating achange request from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 9F depicts another graphical user interface related to creating achange request from a vulnerability group, in accordance with exampleembodiments.

FIG. 10A depicts a graphical user interface related to linking avulnerability group to an existing change request, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIG. 10B depicts another graphical user interface related to linking avulnerability group to an existing change request, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIG. 10C depicts another graphical user interface related to linking avulnerability group to an existing change request, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIG. 11A depicts a graphical user interface related to splitting avulnerability group, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 11B depicts another graphical user interface related to splitting avulnerability group, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 11C depicts another graphical user interface related to splitting avulnerability group, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 11D depicts another graphical user interface related to splitting avulnerability group, in accordance with example embodiments.

FIG. 12 depicts automatic state transitions for vulnerability groupsbased on state changes in associated change requests, in accordance withexample embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a flow chart, in accordance with example embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Example methods, devices, and systems are described herein. It should beunderstood that the words “example” and “exemplary” are used herein tomean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any embodimentor feature described herein as being an “example” or “exemplary” is notnecessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over otherembodiments or features unless stated as such. Thus, other embodimentscan be utilized and other changes can be made without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein.

Accordingly, the example embodiments described herein are not meant tobe limiting. It will be readily understood that the aspects of thepresent disclosure, as generally described herein, and illustrated inthe figures, can be arranged, substituted, combined, separated, anddesigned in a wide variety of different configurations. For example, theseparation of features into “client” and “server” components may occurin a number of ways.

Further, unless context suggests otherwise, the features illustrated ineach of the figures may be used in combination with one another. Thus,the figures should be generally viewed as component aspects of one ormore overall embodiments, with the understanding that not allillustrated features are necessary for each embodiment.

Additionally, any enumeration of elements, blocks, or steps in thisspecification or the claims is for purposes of clarity. Thus, suchenumeration should not be interpreted to require or imply that theseelements, blocks, or steps adhere to a particular arrangement or arecarried out in a particular order.

I. INTRODUCTION

A large enterprise is a complex entity with many interrelatedoperations. Some of these are found across the enterprise, such as humanresources (HR), supply chain, information technology (IT), and finance.However, each enterprise also has its own unique operations that provideessential capabilities and/or create competitive advantages.

To support widely-implemented operations, enterprises typically useoff-the-shelf software applications, such as customer relationshipmanagement (CRM) and human capital management (HCM) packages. However,they may also need custom software applications to meet their own uniquerequirements. A large enterprise often has dozens or hundreds of thesecustom software applications. Nonetheless, the advantages provided bythe embodiments herein are not limited to large enterprises and may beapplicable to an enterprise, or any other type of organization, of anysize.

Many such software applications are developed by individual departmentswithin the enterprise. These range from simple spreadsheets tocustom-built software tools and databases. But the proliferation ofsiloed custom software applications has numerous disadvantages. Itnegatively impacts an enterprise's ability to run and grow itsoperations, innovate, and meet regulatory requirements. The enterprisemay find it difficult to integrate, streamline, and enhance itsoperations due to lack of a single system that unifies its subsystemsand data.

To efficiently create custom applications, enterprises would benefitfrom a remotely-hosted application platform that eliminates unnecessarydevelopment complexity. The goal of such a platform would be to reducetime-consuming, repetitive application development tasks so thatsoftware engineers and individuals in other roles can focus ondeveloping unique, high-value features.

In order to achieve this goal, the concept of Application Platform as aService (aPaaS) is introduced, to intelligently automate workflowsthroughout the enterprise. An aPaaS system is hosted remotely from theenterprise, but may access data, applications, and services within theenterprise by way of secure connections. Such an aPaaS system may have anumber of advantageous capabilities and characteristics. Theseadvantages and characteristics may be able to improve the enterprise'soperations and workflows for IT, HR, CRM, customer service, applicationdevelopment, and security.

The aPaaS system may support development and execution ofmodel-view-controller (MVC) applications. MVC applications divide theirfunctionality into three interconnected parts (model, view, andcontroller) in order to isolate representations of information from themanner in which the information is presented to the user, therebyallowing for efficient code reuse and parallel development. Theseapplications may be web-based, and offer create, read, update, delete(CRUD) capabilities. This allows new applications to be built on acommon application infrastructure.

The aPaaS system may support standardized application components, suchas a standardized set of widgets for graphical user interface (GUI)development. In this way, applications built using the aPaaS system havea common look and feel. Other software components and modules may bestandardized as well. In some cases, this look and feel can be brandedor skinned with an enterprise's custom logos and/or color schemes.

The aPaaS system may support the ability to configure the behavior ofapplications using metadata. This allows application behaviors to berapidly adapted to meet specific needs. Such an approach reducesdevelopment time and increases flexibility. Further, the aPaaS systemmay support GUI tools that facilitate metadata creation and management,thus reducing errors in the metadata.

The aPaaS system may support clearly-defined interfaces betweenapplications, so that software developers can avoid unwantedinter-application dependencies. Thus, the aPaaS system may implement aservice layer in which persistent state information and other data arestored.

The aPaaS system may support a rich set of integration features so thatthe applications thereon can interact with legacy applications andthird-party applications. For instance, the aPaaS system may support acustom employee-onboarding system that integrates with legacy HR, IT,and accounting systems.

The aPaaS system may support enterprise-grade security. Furthermore,since the aPaaS system may be remotely hosted, it should also utilizesecurity procedures when it interacts with systems in the enterprise orthird-party networks and services hosted outside of the enterprise. Forexample, the aPaaS system may be configured to share data amongst theenterprise and other parties to detect and identify common securitythreats.

Other features, functionality, and advantages of an aPaaS system mayexist. This description is for purpose of example and is not intended tobe limiting.

As an example of the aPaaS development process, a software developer maybe tasked to create a new application using the aPaaS system. First, thedeveloper may define the data model, which specifies the types of datathat the application uses and the relationships therebetween. Then, viaa GUI of the aPaaS system, the developer enters (e.g., uploads) the datamodel. The aPaaS system automatically creates all of the correspondingdatabase tables, fields, and relationships, which can then be accessedvia an object-oriented services layer.

In addition, the aPaaS system can also build a fully-functional MVCapplication with client-side interfaces and server-side CRUD logic. Thisgenerated application may serve as the basis of further development forthe user. Advantageously, the developer does not have to spend a largeamount of time on basic application functionality. Further, since theapplication may be web-based, it can be accessed from anyInternet-enabled client device. Alternatively or additionally, a localcopy of the application may be able to be accessed, for instance, whenInternet service is not available.

The aPaaS system may also support a rich set of pre-definedfunctionality that can be added to applications. These features includesupport for searching, email, templating, workflow design, reporting,analytics, social media, scripting, mobile-friendly output, andcustomized GUIs.

Such an aPaaS system may represent a GUI in various ways. For example, aserver device of the aPaaS system may generate a representation of a GUIusing a combination of HTML and JAVASCRIPT®. The JAVASCRIPT® may includeclient-side executable code, server-side executable code, or both. Theserver device may transmit or otherwise provide this representation to aclient device for the client device to display on a screen according toits locally-defined look and feel. Alternatively, a representation of aGUI may take other forms, such as an intermediate form (e.g., JAVA®byte-code) that a client device can use to directly generate graphicaloutput therefrom. Other possibilities exist.

Further, user interaction with GUI elements, such as buttons, menus,tabs, sliders, checkboxes, toggles, etc. may be referred to as“selection”, “activation”, or “actuation” thereof. These terms may beused regardless of whether the GUI elements are interacted with by wayof keyboard, pointing device, touchscreen, or another mechanism.

An aPaaS architecture is particularly powerful when integrated with anenterprise's network and used to manage such a network. The followingembodiments describe architectural and functional aspects of exampleaPaaS systems, as well as the features and advantages thereof.

II. EXAMPLE COMPUTING DEVICES AND CLOUD-BASED COMPUTING ENVIRONMENTS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram exemplifying a computing device100, illustrating some of the components that could be included in acomputing device arranged to operate in accordance with the embodimentsherein. Computing device 100 could be a client device (e.g., a deviceactively operated by a user), a server device (e.g., a device thatprovides computational services to client devices), or some other typeof computational platform. Some server devices may operate as clientdevices from time to time in order to perform particular operations, andsome client devices may incorporate server features.

In this example, computing device 100 includes processor 102, memory104, network interface 106, and input/output unit 108, all of which maybe coupled by system bus 110 or a similar mechanism. In someembodiments, computing device 100 may include other components and/orperipheral devices (e.g., detachable storage, printers, and so on).

Processor 102 may be one or more of any type of computer processingelement, such as a central processing unit (CPU), a co-processor (e.g.,a mathematics, graphics, or encryption co-processor), a digital signalprocessor (DSP), a network processor, and/or a form of integratedcircuit or controller that performs processor operations. In some cases,processor 102 may be one or more single-core processors. In other cases,processor 102 may be one or more multi-core processors with multipleindependent processing units. Processor 102 may also include registermemory for temporarily storing instructions being executed and relateddata, as well as cache memory for temporarily storing recently-usedinstructions and data.

Memory 104 may be any form of computer-usable memory, including but notlimited to random access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), andnon-volatile memory (e.g., flash memory, hard disk drives, solid statedrives, compact discs (CDs), digital video discs (DVDs), and/or tapestorage). Thus, memory 104 represents both main memory units, as well aslong-term storage. Other types of memory may include biological memory.

Memory 104 may store program instructions and/or data on which programinstructions may operate. By way of example, memory 104 may store theseprogram instructions on a non-transitory, computer-readable medium, suchthat the instructions are executable by processor 102 to carry out anyof the methods, processes, or operations disclosed in this specificationor the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 1, memory 104 may include firmware 104A, kernel 104B,and/or applications 104C. Firmware 104A may be program code used to bootor otherwise initiate some or all of computing device 100. Kernel 104Bmay be an operating system, including modules for memory management,scheduling and management of processes, input/output, and communication.Kernel 104B may also include device drivers that allow the operatingsystem to communicate with the hardware modules (e.g., memory units,networking interfaces, ports, and buses) of computing device 100.Applications 104C may be one or more user-space software programs, suchas web browsers or email clients, as well as any software libraries usedby these programs. Memory 104 may also store data used by these andother programs and applications.

Network interface 106 may take the form of one or more wirelineinterfaces, such as Ethernet (e.g., Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, andso on). Network interface 106 may also support communication over one ormore non-Ethernet media, such as coaxial cables or power lines, or overwide-area media, such as Synchronous Optical Networking (SONET) ordigital subscriber line (DSL) technologies. Network interface 106 mayadditionally take the form of one or more wireless interfaces, such asIEEE 802.11 (Wifi), BLUETOOTH®, global positioning system (GPS), or awide-area wireless interface. However, other forms of physical layerinterfaces and other types of standard or proprietary communicationprotocols may be used over network interface 106. Furthermore, networkinterface 106 may comprise multiple physical interfaces. For instance,some embodiments of computing device 100 may include Ethernet,BLUETOOTH®, and Wifi interfaces.

Input/output unit 108 may facilitate user and peripheral deviceinteraction with computing device 100. Input/output unit 108 may includeone or more types of input devices, such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touchscreen, and so on. Similarly, input/output unit 108 may include one ormore types of output devices, such as a screen, monitor, printer, and/orone or more light emitting diodes (LEDs). Additionally or alternatively,computing device 100 may communicate with other devices using auniversal serial bus (USB) or high-definition multimedia interface(HDMI) port interface, for example.

In some embodiments, one or more computing devices like computing device100 may be deployed to support an aPaaS architecture. The exact physicallocation, connectivity, and configuration of these computing devices maybe unknown and/or unimportant to client devices. Accordingly, thecomputing devices may be referred to as “cloud-based” devices that maybe housed at various remote data center locations.

FIG. 2 depicts a cloud-based server cluster 200 in accordance withexample embodiments. In FIG. 2, operations of a computing device (e.g.,computing device 100) may be distributed between server devices 202,data storage 204, and routers 206, all of which may be connected bylocal cluster network 208. The number of server devices 202, datastorages 204, and routers 206 in server cluster 200 may depend on thecomputing task(s) and/or applications assigned to server cluster 200.

For example, server devices 202 can be configured to perform variouscomputing tasks of computing device 100. Thus, computing tasks can bedistributed among one or more of server devices 202. To the extent thatthese computing tasks can be performed in parallel, such a distributionof tasks may reduce the total time to complete these tasks and return aresult. For purposes of simplicity, both server cluster 200 andindividual server devices 202 may be referred to as a “server device.”This nomenclature should be understood to imply that one or moredistinct server devices, data storage devices, and cluster routers maybe involved in server device operations.

Data storage 204 may be data storage arrays that include drive arraycontrollers configured to manage read and write access to groups of harddisk drives and/or solid state drives. The drive array controllers,alone or in conjunction with server devices 202, may also be configuredto manage backup or redundant copies of the data stored in data storage204 to protect against drive failures or other types of failures thatprevent one or more of server devices 202 from accessing units of datastorage 204. Other types of memory aside from drives may be used.

Routers 206 may include networking equipment configured to provideinternal and external communications for server cluster 200. Forexample, routers 206 may include one or more packet-switching and/orrouting devices (including switches and/or gateways) configured toprovide (i) network communications between server devices 202 and datastorage 204 via local cluster network 208, and/or (ii) networkcommunications between server cluster 200 and other devices viacommunication link 210 to network 212.

Additionally, the configuration of routers 206 can be based at least inpart on the data communication requirements of server devices 202 anddata storage 204, the latency and throughput of the local clusternetwork 208, the latency, throughput, and cost of communication link210, and/or other factors that may contribute to the cost, speed,fault-tolerance, resiliency, efficiency, and/or other design goals ofthe system architecture.

As a possible example, data storage 204 may include any form ofdatabase, such as a structured query language (SQL) database. Varioustypes of data structures may store the information in such a database,including but not limited to tables, arrays, lists, trees, and tuples.Furthermore, any databases in data storage 204 may be monolithic ordistributed across multiple physical devices.

Server devices 202 may be configured to transmit data to and receivedata from data storage 204. This transmission and retrieval may take theform of SQL queries or other types of database queries, and the outputof such queries, respectively. Additional text, images, video, and/oraudio may be included as well. Furthermore, server devices 202 mayorganize the received data into web page or web applicationrepresentations. Such a representation may take the form of a markuplanguage, such as the hypertext markup language (HTML), the extensiblemarkup language (XML), or some other standardized or proprietary format.Moreover, server devices 202 may have the capability of executingvarious types of computerized scripting languages, such as but notlimited to Perl, Python, PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP), Active ServerPages (ASP), JAVASCRIPT®, and so on. Computer program code written inthese languages may facilitate the providing of web pages to clientdevices, as well as client device interaction with the web pages.Alternatively or additionally, JAVA® may be used to facilitategeneration of web pages and/or to provide web application functionality.

III. EXAMPLE REMOTE NETWORK MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

FIG. 3 depicts a remote network management architecture, in accordancewith example embodiments. This architecture includes three maincomponents—managed network 300, remote network management platform 320,and public cloud networks 340—all connected by way of Internet 350.

A. Managed Networks

Managed network 300 may be, for example, an enterprise network used byan entity for computing and communications tasks, as well as storage ofdata. Thus, managed network 300 may include client devices 302, serverdevices 304, routers 306, virtual machines 308, firewall 310, and/orproxy servers 312. Client devices 302 may be embodied by computingdevice 100, server devices 304 may be embodied by computing device 100or server cluster 200, and routers 306 may be any type of router,switch, or gateway.

Virtual machines 308 may be embodied by one or more of computing device100 or server cluster 200. In general, a virtual machine is an emulationof a computing system, and mimics the functionality (e.g., processor,memory, and communication resources) of a physical computer. Onephysical computing system, such as server cluster 200, may support up tothousands of individual virtual machines. In some embodiments, virtualmachines 308 may be managed by a centralized server device orapplication that facilitates allocation of physical computing resourcesto individual virtual machines, as well as performance and errorreporting. Enterprises often employ virtual machines in order toallocate computing resources in an efficient, as needed fashion.Providers of virtualized computing systems include VMWARE® andMICROSOFT®.

Firewall 310 may be one or more specialized routers or server devicesthat protect managed network 300 from unauthorized attempts to accessthe devices, applications, and services therein, while allowingauthorized communication that is initiated from managed network 300.Firewall 310 may also provide intrusion detection, web filtering, virusscanning, application-layer gateways, and other applications orservices. In some embodiments not shown in FIG. 3, managed network 300may include one or more virtual private network (VPN) gateways withwhich it communicates with remote network management platform 320 (seebelow).

Managed network 300 may also include one or more proxy servers 312. Anembodiment of proxy servers 312 may be a server application thatfacilitates communication and movement of data between managed network300, remote network management platform 320, and public cloud networks340. In particular, proxy servers 312 may be able to establish andmaintain secure communication sessions with one or more computationalinstances of remote network management platform 320. By way of such asession, remote network management platform 320 may be able to discoverand manage aspects of the architecture and configuration of managednetwork 300 and its components. Possibly with the assistance of proxyservers 312, remote network management platform 320 may also be able todiscover and manage aspects of public cloud networks 340 that are usedby managed network 300.

Firewalls, such as firewall 310, typically deny all communicationsessions that are incoming by way of Internet 350, unless such a sessionwas ultimately initiated from behind the firewall (i.e., from a deviceon managed network 300) or the firewall has been explicitly configuredto support the session. By placing proxy servers 312 behind firewall 310(e.g., within managed network 300 and protected by firewall 310), proxyservers 312 may be able to initiate these communication sessions throughfirewall 310. Thus, firewall 310 might not have to be specificallyconfigured to support incoming sessions from remote network managementplatform 320, thereby avoiding potential security risks to managednetwork 300.

In some cases, managed network 300 may consist of a few devices and asmall number of networks. In other deployments, managed network 300 mayspan multiple physical locations and include hundreds of networks andhundreds of thousands of devices. Thus, the architecture depicted inFIG. 3 is capable of scaling up or down by orders of magnitude.

Furthermore, depending on the size, architecture, and connectivity ofmanaged network 300, a varying number of proxy servers 312 may bedeployed therein. For example, each one of proxy servers 312 may beresponsible for communicating with remote network management platform320 regarding a portion of managed network 300. Alternatively oradditionally, sets of two or more proxy servers may be assigned to sucha portion of managed network 300 for purposes of load balancing,redundancy, and/or high availability.

B. Remote Network Management Platforms

Remote network management platform 320 is a hosted environment thatprovides aPaaS services to users, particularly to the operator ofmanaged network 300. These services may take the form of web-basedportals, for example, using the aforementioned web-based technologies.Thus, a user can securely access remote network management platform 320from, for example, client devices 302, or potentially from a clientdevice outside of managed network 300. By way of the web-based portals,users may design, test, and deploy applications, generate reports, viewanalytics, and perform other tasks.

As shown in FIG. 3, remote network management platform 320 includes fourcomputational instances 322, 324, 326, and 328. Each of thesecomputational instances may represent one or more server nodes operatingdedicated copies of the aPaaS software and/or one or more databasenodes. The arrangement of server and database nodes on physical serverdevices and/or virtual machines can be flexible and may vary based onenterprise needs. In combination, these nodes may provide a set of webportals, services, and applications (e.g., a wholly-functioning aPaaSsystem) available to a particular enterprise. In some cases, a singleenterprise may use multiple computational instances.

For example, managed network 300 may be an enterprise customer of remotenetwork management platform 320, and may use computational instances322, 324, and 326. The reason for providing multiple computationalinstances to one customer is that the customer may wish to independentlydevelop, test, and deploy its applications and services. Thus,computational instance 322 may be dedicated to application developmentrelated to managed network 300, computational instance 324 may bededicated to testing these applications, and computational instance 326may be dedicated to the live operation of tested applications andservices. A computational instance may also be referred to as a hostedinstance, a remote instance, a customer instance, or by some otherdesignation. Any application deployed onto a computational instance maybe a scoped application, in that its access to databases within thecomputational instance can be restricted to certain elements therein(e.g., one or more particular database tables or particular rows withinone or more database tables).

For purposes of clarity, the disclosure herein refers to the arrangementof application nodes, database nodes, aPaaS software executing thereon,and underlying hardware as a “computational instance.” Note that usersmay colloquially refer to the graphical user interfaces provided therebyas “instances.” But unless it is defined otherwise herein, a“computational instance” is a computing system disposed within remotenetwork management platform 320.

The multi-instance architecture of remote network management platform320 is in contrast to conventional multi-tenant architectures, overwhich multi-instance architectures exhibit several advantages. Inmulti-tenant architectures, data from different customers (e.g.,enterprises) are comingled in a single database. While these customers'data are separate from one another, the separation is enforced by thesoftware that operates the single database. As a consequence, a securitybreach in this system may impact all customers' data, creatingadditional risk, especially for entities subject to governmental,healthcare, and/or financial regulation. Furthermore, any databaseoperations that impact one customer will likely impact all customerssharing that database. Thus, if there is an outage due to hardware orsoftware errors, this outage affects all such customers. Likewise, ifthe database is to be upgraded to meet the needs of one customer, itwill be unavailable to all customers during the upgrade process. Often,such maintenance windows will be long, due to the size of the shareddatabase.

In contrast, the multi-instance architecture provides each customer withits own database in a dedicated computing instance. This preventscomingling of customer data, and allows each instance to beindependently managed. For example, when one customer's instanceexperiences an outage due to errors or an upgrade, other computationalinstances are not impacted. Maintenance down time is limited because thedatabase only contains one customer's data. Further, the simpler designof the multi-instance architecture allows redundant copies of eachcustomer database and instance to be deployed in a geographicallydiverse fashion. This facilitates high availability, where the liveversion of the customer's instance can be moved when faults are detectedor maintenance is being performed.

In some embodiments, remote network management platform 320 may includeone or more central instances, controlled by the entity that operatesthis platform. Like a computational instance, a central instance mayinclude some number of application and database nodes disposed upon somenumber of physical server devices or virtual machines. Such a centralinstance may serve as a repository for specific configurations ofcomputational instances as well as data that can be shared amongst atleast some of the computational instances. For instance, definitions ofcommon security threats that could occur on the computational instances,software packages that are commonly discovered on the computationalinstances, and/or an application store for applications that can bedeployed to the computational instances may reside in a centralinstance. Computational instances may communicate with central instancesby way of well-defined interfaces in order to obtain this data.

In order to support multiple computational instances in an efficientfashion, remote network management platform 320 may implement aplurality of these instances on a single hardware platform. For example,when the aPaaS system is implemented on a server cluster such as servercluster 200, it may operate virtual machines that dedicate varyingamounts of computational, storage, and communication resources toinstances. But full virtualization of server cluster 200 might not benecessary, and other mechanisms may be used to separate instances. Insome examples, each instance may have a dedicated account and one ormore dedicated databases on server cluster 200. Alternatively, acomputational instance such as computational instance 322 may spanmultiple physical devices.

In some cases, a single server cluster of remote network managementplatform 320 may support multiple independent enterprises. Furthermore,as described below, remote network management platform 320 may includemultiple server clusters deployed in geographically diverse data centersin order to facilitate load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

C. Public Cloud Networks

Public cloud networks 340 may be remote server devices (e.g., aplurality of server clusters such as server cluster 200) that can beused for outsourced computation, data storage, communication, andservice hosting operations. These servers may be virtualized (i.e., theservers may be virtual machines). Examples of public cloud networks 340may include AMAZON WEB SERVICES® and MICROSOFT® AZURE®. Like remotenetwork management platform 320, multiple server clusters supportingpublic cloud networks 340 may be deployed at geographically diverselocations for purposes of load balancing, redundancy, and/or highavailability.

Managed network 300 may use one or more of public cloud networks 340 todeploy applications and services to its clients and customers. Forinstance, if managed network 300 provides online music streamingservices, public cloud networks 340 may store the music files andprovide web interface and streaming capabilities. In this way, theenterprise of managed network 300 does not have to build and maintainits own servers for these operations.

Remote network management platform 320 may include modules thatintegrate with public cloud networks 340 to expose virtual machines andmanaged services therein to managed network 300. The modules may allowusers to request virtual resources, discover allocated resources, andprovide flexible reporting for public cloud networks 340. In order toestablish this functionality, a user from managed network 300 mightfirst establish an account with public cloud networks 340, and request aset of associated resources. Then, the user may enter the accountinformation into the appropriate modules of remote network managementplatform 320. These modules may then automatically discover themanageable resources in the account, and also provide reports related tousage, performance, and billing.

D. Communication Support and Other Operations

Internet 350 may represent a portion of the global Internet. However,Internet 350 may alternatively represent a different type of network,such as a private wide-area or local-area packet-switched network.

FIG. 4 further illustrates the communication environment between managednetwork 300 and computational instance 322, and introduces additionalfeatures and alternative embodiments. In FIG. 4, computational instance322 is replicated across data centers 400A and 400B. These data centersmay be geographically distant from one another, perhaps in differentcities or different countries. Each data center includes supportequipment that facilitates communication with managed network 300, aswell as remote users.

In data center 400A, network traffic to and from external devices flowseither through VPN gateway 402A or firewall 404A. VPN gateway 402A maybe peered with VPN gateway 412 of managed network 300 by way of asecurity protocol such as Internet Protocol Security (IPSEC) orTransport Layer Security (TLS). Firewall 404A may be configured to allowaccess from authorized users, such as user 414 and remote user 416, andto deny access to unauthorized users. By way of firewall 404A, theseusers may access computational instance 322, and possibly othercomputational instances. Load balancer 406A may be used to distributetraffic amongst one or more physical or virtual server devices that hostcomputational instance 322. Load balancer 406A may simplify user accessby hiding the internal configuration of data center 400A, (e.g.,computational instance 322) from client devices. For instance, ifcomputational instance 322 includes multiple physical or virtualcomputing devices that share access to multiple databases, load balancer406A may distribute network traffic and processing tasks across thesecomputing devices and databases so that no one computing device ordatabase is significantly busier than the others. In some embodiments,computational instance 322 may include VPN gateway 402A, firewall 404A,and load balancer 406A.

Data center 400B may include its own versions of the components in datacenter 400A. Thus, VPN gateway 402B, firewall 404B, and load balancer406B may perform the same or similar operations as VPN gateway 402A,firewall 404A, and load balancer 406A, respectively. Further, by way ofreal-time or near-real-time database replication and/or otheroperations, computational instance 322 may exist simultaneously in datacenters 400A and 400B.

Data centers 400A and 400B as shown in FIG. 4 may facilitate redundancyand high availability. In the configuration of FIG. 4, data center 400Ais active and data center 400B is passive. Thus, data center 400A isserving all traffic to and from managed network 300, while the versionof computational instance 322 in data center 400B is being updated innear-real-time. Other configurations, such as one in which both datacenters are active, may be supported.

Should data center 400A fail in some fashion or otherwise becomeunavailable to users, data center 400B can take over as the active datacenter. For example, domain name system (DNS) servers that associate adomain name of computational instance 322 with one or more InternetProtocol (IP) addresses of data center 400A may re-associate the domainname with one or more IP addresses of data center 400B. After thisre-association completes (which may take less than one second or severalseconds), users may access computational instance 322 by way of datacenter 400B.

FIG. 4 also illustrates a possible configuration of managed network 300.As noted above, proxy servers 312 and user 414 may access computationalinstance 322 through firewall 310. Proxy servers 312 may also accessconfiguration items 410. In FIG. 4, configuration items 410 may refer toany or all of client devices 302, server devices 304, routers 306, andvirtual machines 308, any applications or services executing thereon, aswell as relationships between devices, applications, and services. Thus,the term “configuration items” may be shorthand for any physical orvirtual device, or any application or service remotely discoverable ormanaged by computational instance 322, or relationships betweendiscovered devices, applications, and services. Configuration items maybe represented in a configuration management database (CMDB) ofcomputational instance 322.

As noted above, VPN gateway 412 may provide a dedicated VPN to VPNgateway 402A. Such a VPN may be helpful when there is a significantamount of traffic between managed network 300 and computational instance322, or security policies otherwise suggest or require use of a VPNbetween these sites. In some embodiments, any device in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 that directly communicates via theVPN is assigned a public IP address. Other devices in managed network300 and/or computational instance 322 may be assigned private IPaddresses (e.g., IP addresses selected from the 10.0.0.0-10.255.255.255or 192.168.0.0-192.168.255.255 ranges, represented in shorthand assubnets 10.0.0.0/8 and 192.168.0.0/16, respectively).

IV. EXAMPLE DEVICE, APPLICATION, AND SERVICE DISCOVERY

In order for remote network management platform 320 to administer thedevices, applications, and services of managed network 300, remotenetwork management platform 320 may first determine what devices arepresent in managed network 300, the configurations and operationalstatuses of these devices, and the applications and services provided bythe devices, as well as the relationships between discovered devices,applications, and services. As noted above, each device, application,service, and relationship may be referred to as a configuration item.The process of defining configuration items within managed network 300is referred to as discovery, and may be facilitated at least in part byproxy servers 312.

For purposes of the embodiments herein, an “application” may refer toone or more processes, threads, programs, client modules, servermodules, or any other software that executes on a device or group ofdevices. A “service” may refer to a high-level capability provided bymultiple applications executing on one or more devices working inconjunction with one another. For example, a high-level web service mayinvolve multiple web application server threads executing on one deviceand accessing information from a database application that executes onanother device.

FIG. 5A provides a logical depiction of how configuration items can bediscovered, as well as how information related to discoveredconfiguration items can be stored. For sake of simplicity, remotenetwork management platform 320, public cloud networks 340, and Internet350 are not shown.

In FIG. 5A, CMDB 500 and task list 502 are stored within computationalinstance 322. Computational instance 322 may transmit discovery commandsto proxy servers 312. In response, proxy servers 312 may transmit probesto various devices, applications, and services in managed network 300.These devices, applications, and services may transmit responses toproxy servers 312, and proxy servers 312 may then provide informationregarding discovered configuration items to CMDB 500 for storagetherein. Configuration items stored in CMDB 500 represent theenvironment of managed network 300.

Task list 502 represents a list of activities that proxy servers 312 areto perform on behalf of computational instance 322. As discovery takesplace, task list 502 is populated. Proxy servers 312 repeatedly querytask list 502, obtain the next task therein, and perform this task untiltask list 502 is empty or another stopping condition has been reached.

To facilitate discovery, proxy servers 312 may be configured withinformation regarding one or more subnets in managed network 300 thatare reachable by way of proxy servers 312. For instance, proxy servers312 may be given the IP address range 192.168.0/24 as a subnet. Then,computational instance 322 may store this information in CMDB 500 andplace tasks in task list 502 for discovery of devices at each of theseaddresses.

FIG. 5A also depicts devices, applications, and services in managednetwork 300 as configuration items 504, 506, 508, 510, and 512. As notedabove, these configuration items represent a set of physical and/orvirtual devices (e.g., client devices, server devices, routers, orvirtual machines), applications executing thereon (e.g., web servers,email servers, databases, or storage arrays), relationshipstherebetween, as well as services that involve multiple individualconfiguration items.

Placing the tasks in task list 502 may trigger or otherwise cause proxyservers 312 to begin discovery. Alternatively or additionally, discoverymay be manually triggered or automatically triggered based on triggeringevents (e.g., discovery may automatically begin once per day at aparticular time).

In general, discovery may proceed in four logical phases: scanning,classification, identification, and exploration. Each phase of discoveryinvolves various types of probe messages being transmitted by proxyservers 312 to one or more devices in managed network 300. The responsesto these probes may be received and processed by proxy servers 312, andrepresentations thereof may be transmitted to CMDB 500. Thus, each phasecan result in more configuration items being discovered and stored inCMDB 500.

In the scanning phase, proxy servers 312 may probe each IP address inthe specified range of IP addresses for open Transmission ControlProtocol (TCP) and/or User Datagram Protocol (UDP) ports to determinethe general type of device. The presence of such open ports at an IPaddress may indicate that a particular application is operating on thedevice that is assigned the IP address, which in turn may identify theoperating system used by the device. For example, if TCP port 135 isopen, then the device is likely executing a WINDOWS® operating system.Similarly, if TCP port 22 is open, then the device is likely executing aUNIX® operating system, such as LINUX®. If UDP port 161 is open, thenthe device may be able to be further identified through the SimpleNetwork Management Protocol (SNMP). Other possibilities exist. Once thepresence of a device at a particular IP address and its open ports havebeen discovered, these configuration items are saved in CMDB 500.

In the classification phase, proxy servers 312 may further probe eachdiscovered device to determine the version of its operating system. Theprobes used for a particular device are based on information gatheredabout the devices during the scanning phase. For example, if a device isfound with TCP port 22 open, a set of UNIX®-specific probes may be used.Likewise, if a device is found with TCP port 135 open, a set ofWINDOWS®-specific probes may be used. For either case, an appropriateset of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxy servers 312 tocarry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312 logging on, orotherwise accessing information from the particular device. Forinstance, if TCP port 22 is open, proxy servers 312 may be instructed toinitiate a Secure Shell (SSH) connection to the particular device andobtain information about the operating system thereon from particularlocations in the file system. Based on this information, the operatingsystem may be determined. As an example, a UNIX® device with TCP port 22open may be classified as AIX®, HPUX, LINUX®, MACOS®, or SOLARIS®. Thisclassification information may be stored as one or more configurationitems in CMDB 500.

In the identification phase, proxy servers 312 may determine specificdetails about a classified device. The probes used during this phase maybe based on information gathered about the particular devices during theclassification phase. For example, if a device was classified as LINUX®,a set of LINUX®-specific probes may be used. Likewise, if a device wasclassified as WINDOWS® 2012, as a set of WINDOWS®-2012-specific probesmay be used. As was the case for the classification phase, anappropriate set of tasks may be placed in task list 502 for proxyservers 312 to carry out. These tasks may result in proxy servers 312reading information from the particular device, such as basicinput/output system (BIOS) information, serial numbers, networkinterface information, media access control address(es) assigned tothese network interface(s), IP address(es) used by the particular deviceand so on. This identification information may be stored as one or moreconfiguration items in CMDB 500.

In the exploration phase, proxy servers 312 may determine furtherdetails about the operational state of a classified device. The probesused during this phase may be based on information gathered about theparticular devices during the classification phase and/or theidentification phase. Again, an appropriate set of tasks may be placedin task list 502 for proxy servers 312 to carry out. These tasks mayresult in proxy servers 312 reading additional information from theparticular device, such as processor information, memory information,lists of running processes (applications), and so on. Once more, thediscovered information may be stored as one or more configuration itemsin CMDB 500.

Running discovery on a network device, such as a router, may utilizeSNMP. Instead of or in addition to determining a list of runningprocesses or other application-related information, discovery maydetermine additional subnets known to the router and the operationalstate of the router's network interfaces (e.g., active, inactive, queuelength, number of packets dropped, etc.). The IP addresses of theadditional subnets may be candidates for further discovery procedures.Thus, discovery may progress iteratively or recursively.

Once discovery completes, a snapshot representation of each discovereddevice, application, and service is available in CMDB 500. For example,after discovery, operating system version, hardware configuration, andnetwork configuration details for client devices, server devices, androuters in managed network 300, as well as applications executingthereon, may be stored. This collected information may be presented to auser in various ways to allow the user to view the hardware compositionand operational status of devices, as well as the characteristics ofservices that span multiple devices and applications.

Furthermore, CMDB 500 may include entries regarding dependencies andrelationships between configuration items. More specifically, anapplication that is executing on a particular server device, as well asthe services that rely on this application, may be represented as suchin CMDB 500. For example, suppose that a database application isexecuting on a server device, and that this database application is usedby a new employee onboarding service as well as a payroll service. Thus,if the server device is taken out of operation for maintenance, it isclear that the employee onboarding service and payroll service will beimpacted. Likewise, the dependencies and relationships betweenconfiguration items may be able to represent the services impacted whena particular router fails.

In general, dependencies and relationships between configuration itemsmay be displayed on a web-based interface and represented in ahierarchical fashion. Thus, adding, changing, or removing suchdependencies and relationships may be accomplished by way of thisinterface.

Furthermore, users from managed network 300 may develop workflows thatallow certain coordinated activities to take place across multiplediscovered devices. For instance, an IT workflow might allow the user tochange the common administrator password to all discovered LINUX®devices in a single operation.

In order for discovery to take place in the manner described above,proxy servers 312, CMDB 500, and/or one or more credential stores may beconfigured with credentials for one or more of the devices to bediscovered. Credentials may include any type of information needed inorder to access the devices. These may include userid/password pairs,certificates, and so on. In some embodiments, these credentials may bestored in encrypted fields of CMDB 500. Proxy servers 312 may containthe decryption key for the credentials so that proxy servers 312 can usethese credentials to log on to or otherwise access devices beingdiscovered.

The discovery process is depicted as a flow chart in FIG. 5B. At block520, the task list in the computational instance is populated, forinstance, with a range of IP addresses. At block 522, the scanning phasetakes place. Thus, the proxy servers probe the IP addresses for devicesusing these IP addresses, and attempt to determine the operating systemsthat are executing on these devices. At block 524, the classificationphase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determine the operatingsystem version of the discovered devices. At block 526, theidentification phase takes place. The proxy servers attempt to determinethe hardware and/or software configuration of the discovered devices. Atblock 528, the exploration phase takes place. The proxy servers attemptto determine the operational state and applications executing on thediscovered devices. At block 530, further editing of the configurationitems representing the discovered devices and applications may takeplace. This editing may be automated and/or manual in nature.

The blocks represented in FIG. 5B are examples. Discovery may be ahighly configurable procedure that can have more or fewer phases, andthe operations of each phase may vary. In some cases, one or more phasesmay be customized, or may otherwise deviate from the exemplarydescriptions above.

In this manner, a remote network management platform may discover andinventory the hardware, software, and services deployed on and providedby the managed network. As noted above, this data may be stored in aCMDB of the associated computational instance as configuration items.For example, individual hardware components (e.g., computing devices,virtual servers, databases, routers, etc.) may be represented ashardware configuration items, while the applications installed and/orexecuting thereon may be represented as software configuration items.

The relationship between a software configuration item installed orexecuting on a hardware configuration item may take various forms, suchas “is hosted on”, “runs on”, or “depends on”. Thus, a databaseapplication installed on a server device may have the relationship “ishosted on” with the server device to indicate that the databaseapplication is hosted on the server device. In some embodiments, theserver device may have a reciprocal relationship of “used by” with thedatabase application to indicate that the server device is used by thedatabase application. These relationships may be automatically foundusing the discovery procedures described above, though it is possible tomanually set relationships as well.

The relationship between a service and one or more softwareconfiguration items may also take various forms. As an example, a webservice may include a web server software configuration item and adatabase application software configuration item, each installed ondifferent hardware configuration items. The web service may have a“depends on” relationship with both of these software configurationitems, while the software configuration items have a “used by”reciprocal relationship with the web service. Services might not be ableto be fully determined by discovery procedures, and instead may rely onservice mapping (e.g., probing configuration files and/or carrying outnetwork traffic analysis to determine service level relationshipsbetween configuration items) and possibly some extent of manualconfiguration.

Regardless of how relationship information is obtained, it can bevaluable for the operation of a managed network. Notably, IT personnelcan quickly determine where certain software applications are deployed,and what configuration items make up a service. This allows for rapidpinpointing of root causes of service outages or degradation. Forexample, if two different services are suffering from slow responsetimes, the CMDB can be queried (perhaps among other activities) todetermine that the root cause is a database application that is used byboth services having high processor utilization. Thus, IT personnel canaddress the database application rather than waste time considering thehealth and performance of other configuration items that make up theservices.

V. EXAMPLE VULNERABILITIES

The vulnerabilities discussed herein may relate to known defects inhardware, operating systems, and/or software packages deployedthroughout a managed network. Exploitation of a vulnerability may resultin a negative impact to the data confidentiality, integrity, and/oravailability of one or more computing devices. Such vulnerabilities maybe associated with different severities.

For example, a first hypothetical vulnerability may be that opening acertain type of file in a word processing application provides aremotely-exploitable mechanism through which an attacker can gain accessto the computing device on which the word processing application isinstalled. This would likely be viewed a critical vulnerability, as itcould lead to unauthorized access to confidential data. On the otherhand, a second hypothetical vulnerability may be that providing certaininput to a web browsing application may cause the screen of thecomputing device on which the web browsing application is installed togo blank. This would likely be viewed as a non-critical vulnerability,as it is a mere annoyance to the user. Severity may be chosen, forexample, on a spectrum from critical (most severe), to high, to medium,to low (least severe).

Listings of known vulnerabilities are published by governments, as wellas various commercial entities. For example, the U.S. National Instituteof Standards and Technology (NIST) maintains a public nationalvulnerability database, listing known vulnerabilities, their severities,and their exploitability (e.g., how an attacker might go about using thevulnerability and how hard this process might be). Exploitability scalesmay include indications of whether a known exploit exists, how skilledan attacker would have to be to use the exploit, and whether theattacker needs physical access to a target computing device to use theexploit and/or if the exploit can be used by way of a local or remotenetwork.

Commercial listings may overlap with the government listings and withone another, but can include different vulnerability listings, and usedifferent severity scales and/or exploitability scales. Thesediscrepancies may be due to inherent subjectivity related to classifyingvulnerability severity and exploitability, or that these commercial andgovernmental entities have had different experiences when testing thevulnerability.

It should be noted that vulnerabilities are not the same as activesecurity threats. Vulnerabilities indicate that a problem has beenidentified independent of whether the vulnerability has been actuallyexploited. Active security threats, on the other hand, are ongoingexploitations that often require immediate attention. For example, alive distributed denial of service (DDOS) attack should be addressed inreal time, regardless of whether any vulnerabilities that it uses areknown.

Thus, security managers address vulnerabilities as time allows based ontheir severities and other factors. Critical severity vulnerabilitiesmay be targeted for resolution within 3 days, for example, while highseverity vulnerabilities may be targeted for resolution within 30 days,and so on. Vulnerabilities with lower-level severities may be addressedon an as-time-permits basis or might not be scheduled for resolution atall, as these non-critical vulnerabilities may be deemed low enough riskthat security managers should be spending their time carrying out moreimportant tasks instead.

Addressing a vulnerability may occur in various ways. In some cases, thevendor of an operating system or software package with an identifiedvulnerability may publish an installable patch that resolves thevulnerability. Alternatively, the vendor or another party may identify aworkaround to the vulnerability, such as settings that mitigate orprevent the vulnerability from occurring. In some cases, securitymanagers may disable software packages with unpatched vulnerabilities orissue warnings to users until a patch or workaround is available. Inextreme situations, vulnerable software may be temporarily orpermanently removed from impacted computing devices. Nonetheless, once aresolution is available, security managers may schedule the resolutionto be applied in accordance with the severity of the vulnerability.

As the scope of computer networks and the extent of available softwarepackages have grown dramatically, so has the number of vulnerabilities.For instance, the NIST database identified 1537 new vulnerabilities inApril 2019 alone. This is in addition to other vulnerabilities that mayhave been identified in the past. As a result, there are over 117,000known vulnerabilities in the NIST database. Identifying thesevulnerabilities and their associated severities is not possible to do byhand even for a small managed network with just a few devices.

VI. EXAMPLE VULNERABILITY MANAGEMENT ARCHITECTURE

In order to be addressed, vulnerabilities are first detected on amanaged network. Given the intractability of doing so manually, a numberof software tools are available that perform automated vulnerabilitydetection. Some of these tools include, but are not limited to, NESSUS®,QUALYSGUARD®, and RAPID7®. For purposes of simplicity, variousvulnerability detection and assessment tools are referred to asthird-party vulnerability tools in the discussion below.

FIG. 6 depicts a vulnerability management architecture 600. Architecture600 includes managed network 300, remote network management platform320, and third-party vulnerability detection and assessment cloud 606(referred to as cloud 606 for short), all connected by Internet 350.

Managed network 300 is largely the same as shown in FIG. 3, but justshowing configuration items 602, vulnerability scanner 604, and proxyserver(s) 312. Each of configuration items 602 may represent a virtualor physical computing device and/or a software application installedupon such a computing device. Vulnerability scanner 604 may be adedicated unit of software and/or a virtual or physical computing devicethat is deployed within managed network 300 to detect vulnerabilitiesrelating to configuration items 602. Proxy server(s) may take on thesame or similar functionality as described above.

In some embodiments, vulnerability scanner 604 may include a softwareagent that is deployed on multiple endpoints, where each endpoint isrepresented as one or more of configuration items 602. In these or otherembodiments, vulnerability scanner 604 may include one or more softwareapplications deployed on one or more dedicated computing devices. Ineither situation, vulnerability scanner 604 may scan or otherwiseremotely access configuration items 602 to detect vulnerabilities. Forexample, vulnerability scanner 604 may scan configuration items602—e.g., probe for open TCP/IP ports on computing devices, and/or logon to computing devices to determine the operating system, softwareapplications installed thereon, and versions thereof. In someembodiments, vulnerability scanner 604 may store the results of thesescans locally, or may transmit the results to cloud 606.

Remote network management platform 320 is the same or similar to that ofFIG. 3, but showing only one computational instance, computationalinstance 322, for sake of simplicity. Computational instance 322includes CMDB 500. As described above, CMDB 500 may includerepresentations of configuration items 602, including multipleattributes for each.

Cloud 606 is an optional component that might not be present whenvulnerability scanner 604 stores the results of scans locally. However,when present, cloud 606 receives these results, and cloud 606 may storeand assess the results. For instance, cloud 606 may identifyvulnerabilities based on the operating system and version thereof,operating system configuration, software application and versionthereof, software configuration, and possible other metrics as well. Theidentified vulnerabilities may be stored and then made available by wayof an interface, such as a web-based graphical user interface, aJavaScript Object Notation (JSON) interface, an XML interface, or someother form of interface.

In particular, computational instance 322 may be configured to obtainthe identified vulnerabilities from cloud 606, or from vulnerabilityscanner 606 by way of proxy server(s) 312. As discussed in more detailbelow, computational instance 322 may combine this information withadditional information from CMDB 500 to provide an overall risk scoreper vulnerability. These risk scores may be used to prioritize howsecurity managers of managed network 300 address vulnerabilities.

FIG. 7 provides further aspects of these procedures. Third-partydatabase 700 contains definitions of vulnerabilities, which may includea severity and/or an exploitability ranking for each knownvulnerability. Third-party database 700 may be a governmental orcommercial database.

Normalizer 704 of computational instance 322 may obtain thevulnerability definitions from third-party database 700. Normalizer 704may then map these definitions to normalized definitions used bycomputational instance 322. This normalization may be desirable if atleast some third-party vulnerability databases use different scales toevaluate the severity and/or exploitability of vulnerabilities. Forexample, computational instance 322 may use a vulnerability severityscale (from most severe to least severe) of critical, high, medium, low,and none, while third-party database may use a vulnerability severityscale (from most severe to least severe) of important, moderate, andoptional. Normalizer 704 may be configured to convert the vulnerabilitydefinitions from third-party database 700 to the normalized definitionsby, for instance, mapping important severities to critical severities,moderate severities to medium severities, and optional severities to lowseverities. Other severity mappings may be possible and similar mappingsmay exist for the exploitability scales. Thus, normalizer 704 may beconfigured to normalize definitions from multiple third-party sources.

Once the vulnerability definitions are normalized, they are provided torisk score calculator 706. Risk score calculator 706 also obtainsvulnerability data regarding a managed network (e.g., managed network300) from third-party vulnerability tool 702. As noted above,computational instance 322 may retrieve this data from a managed networkor from cloud 606. This vulnerability data may include, for eachvulnerability identified in the managed network, a severity ratingand/or an exploitability rating for the vulnerability, as well asreferences to the configuration items impacted by the vulnerability.Risk score calculator 706 may use the normalized definitions to map theseverity and/or exploitability ratings from the vulnerability data totheir normalized values.

Risk score calculator 706 may also obtain information from CMDB 500regarding the importance of configuration items impacted by thevulnerability. For example, a web server device may be designated withhigh importance, while a client device used in a lab environment may bedesignated with low importance. The higher the importance of aconfiguration item impacted by a vulnerability, the more precedenceshould be given to addressing this vulnerability.

Risk score calculator 706 may also obtain information from CMDB 500regarding the exposure of the configuration items impacted by thevulnerability. For example, an Internet-facing device has more exposureto vulnerabilities than a device internal to a managed network. Thus,Internet-facing devices impacted with a vulnerability should beaddressed with higher priority than internal devices with the samevulnerability.

From this input, risk score calculator 706 provides risk scores for eachcombination of vulnerability and configuration item. The combination ofa vulnerability found on a configuration item and that configurationitem may be referred to a vulnerable item. Thus, a risk score pervulnerable item is produced. For instance, if a computing device issubject to two vulnerabilities, they would be referred to as twoseparate vulnerable items and thus two separate risk scores areprovided. Or if multiple computing devices are subject to the samevulnerability, each computing device and vulnerability combination is aseparate vulnerable item and one risk score per each of these vulnerableitems is provided.

The risk score may be calculated in various ways from the vulnerabilityseverity, vulnerability exploitability, configuration item (CI)importance, and CI exposure information obtained by risk scorecalculator 706. For instance, each discrete value for vulnerabilityseverity, vulnerability exploitability, CI importance, and CI exposuremay map to a number, and the risk score may be calculated as a weightedsum of these numbers. Further, the risk score may be calculated so thatit is within a given range (e.g., 0-100, where 0 indicates no risk and100 indicates the highest level of risk). These risk scores may bedisplayed in vulnerability graphical user interface console 708 and usedby security managers to prioritize the vulnerabilities that theyaddress.

This represents an advance over previous ways of calculating risk scoresfor vulnerabilities that only considered vulnerability severity, andinvolved a basic mapping from vulnerability severity to risk score(e.g., the greater the severity the higher the risk). The embodimentsherein provide ways to produce risk scores that are more realistic andrepresentative of the actual threats presented by vulnerabilities foundon particular devices.

As an illustration of how a risk score is calculated, FIG. 8 provides anumber of factors 800 used in risk score calculation. These includefactors that are characteristics of the vulnerability (labelled asvulnerability factors 802) and factors that are characteristics of theconfiguration item (labelled configuration item factors 804).

The vulnerability factors 802 include the aforementioned severity andwhether an exploit exists. If the exploit does exist, the skill levelneeded to take advantage of the exploit as well as the attack vector ofthe exploit can also be taken into consideration. Consistent with thediscussion above, severity has four possible values (critical, high,medium, and low), exploit exists has two possible values (yes and no),skill level has three possible values (novice, intermediate, andexpert), and attack vector has two possible values (remote and local).The configuration item factors 804 include CI importance and CIexposure. CI importance has five possible values (important, high,medium, low, and no services), and exposure exists has two possiblevalues (Internet-facing and internal).

Each possible value of factors 800 is associated with a number between 0and 100, inclusive. These numbers are used to calculate the risk score,with higher value indicating a bigger contribution to the overall risk.Thus, a severity of critical, which has a value of 100, is considered tobe twice as severe as a severity of medium, which has a value of 50.Values may be assigned to levels in various ways and the assignments inFIG. 8 are for purposes of illustration.

There may be dependencies between some of factors 800. In FIG. 8, theskill level and attack vector factors are dependent on the exploitexists factor, because if an exploit is not known to exist, then therewill be no skill level or attack vector associated with it. Thus, theskill level and attack vector factors are only relevant when exploitexists is yes.

Each factor 800 is also associated with a letter—S for severity, E forexploit exists, L for skill level, V for attack vector, I for CIimportance, and X for CI exposure. These letters are used to representthe values of each of factors 800 in the risk score calculation.User-defined weights are associated with each factor as well, to providean overall risk score (RS) equation of:RS=w _(S) S+w _(E) E+w _(L) L+w _(V) V+w _(I) I+w _(X) X

where the sum of all weights (w_(S)+w_(E)+w_(L)+w_(V)+w_(I)+w_(X)) is1.0. In some embodiments, non-integer risk scores may be rounded to thenearest integer or rounded up.

As an example, suppose that the weights are set as follows: w_(S)=0.5,w_(E)=0.1, w_(L)=0.05, w_(V)=0.05, w_(I)=0.15, and w_(X)=0.15. Then, fora vulnerable item with a severity of high, for which an exploit exists,with a skill level of novice, an attack vector that is local, an CIimportance of low, and an CI exposure of Internet-facing, the risk scoreis calculated as:RS=(0.5)(75)+(0.1)(100)+(0.05)(100)+(0.05)(50)+(0.15)(33)+(0.15)(100)=74.95

In another example, a vulnerable item with a severity of low, for whichan exploit does not exist, a CI importance of high, and a CI exposure ofinternal, the risk score is calculated as:RS=(0.5)(25)+(0.1)(0)+(0.15)(100)+(0.15)(50)=35

This latter calculation omits the skill level and attack vector factorsbecause an exploit does not exist. Regardless, the first vulnerable itemshould be given a higher priority than the second vulnerable itembecause it has a higher risk score.

In addition to the factors described above, numerous other factors maybe used. As just one example, an impact factor may measure avulnerability's impact on data confidentiality, data integrity, andservice availability.

VII. CHANGE REQUESTS AND VULNERABLE ITEMS

In order to have a regulated process for implementing changes overcomputer hardware and software (e.g., CIs) in a managed network, manyenterprises employ a change tracking application. Such an applicationmay be implemented in a web-based fashion and may be executable on acomputational instance of a remote network management platform.

As an example of the operation of a change tracking application, achange request may be submitted to the system by a user, such as an ITmanager, other IT professional, or end user. The change request canrecord information describing the change, its priority, a targetcompletion time (also referred to as a target remediation time), astate, to whom the change request is assigned, and possibly otherinformation as well. Less information may also be possible in changerequests. The change tracking software application may facilitatemanaging the lifetime of the change request and scheduling theimplementation thereof.

Ultimately, each change request may involve adding, modifying, and/orremoving CIs. For example, change requests may involve applying a patchor update to the operating system or an application on a number ofcomputing devices in the managed network, changing the configurations ofsome of the computing devices, removing a set of the computing devicesfrom service, or adding one or more computing devices to the managednetwork. Other possibilities exist.

As noted above, vulnerabilities may also be tracked, in some cases byway of a vulnerability response application of the computationalinstance. This application may facilitate the creation, specification,and assignment of vulnerable items. Each vulnerable item may beassociated with any of vulnerability factors 802 and/or configurationitem factors 804.

Vulnerability groups may also be defined and managed in a vulnerabilityresponse application. Each vulnerability group may contain one or morevulnerable items with some form of similarity, e.g., being the same typeof computing device, operating the same software, and/or being in thesame physical location. The vulnerable items in a vulnerability groupalso share at least some vulnerabilities; however, different vulnerableitems in the same group may not all have the same vulnerabilities.

As an example, a vulnerability group may contain a number of serverdevices using patch level A of an operating system, as well as a numberof server devices using patch level B of the operating system. Due to adefect in both versions of the operating system, all of these serverdevices are subject to vulnerabilities (and are thus vulnerable items),but the vulnerabilities for those using patch level A of the operatingsystem have a higher risk score than those using patch level B of theoperating system. Both sets of server devices may be placed in the samevulnerability group, however, because upgrading the server devices topatch level C of the operating system will address all of thevulnerabilities.

In general, using vulnerability groups is a convenience, especially forlarge managed networks, as it allows vulnerable items to be tracked inbulk rather than one at a time. This reduces the complexity andincreases the efficiency of vulnerability management.

A limitation of current systems is that vulnerable items and changerequests are maintained in different and independent repositories (e.g.,databases or database tables) within a computational instance. Thus, asthe number of vulnerable items grows, it can be difficult to determinewhich have been addressed by what change requests. Failure to properlyaddress a vulnerable item can result in a security breach in the managednetwork, potentially causing disruption of enterprise services, lossesof data and other assets, loss of revenue, and loss of personnel time.Therefore, it is desirable for there to be improved systems that bettercoordinate vulnerable items and change requests. Doing so can have animmediate and beneficial impact on the security and integrity of themanaged network.

The embodiments herein provide a bi-directional integration in whichvulnerable items and change requests can be cross-referenced to oneanother in an automated and user-friendly fashion. Through use ofgraphical user interfaces and underlying programmatic logic, varioususeful aspects of this integration can be achieved.

In one aspect, the embodiments herein streamline the process of creatinga change request for a vulnerability group by auto-populating relevantdata fields in the change request with information from thevulnerability group. In another aspect, these embodiments allow existingchange requests to be associated with a vulnerability group. In anotheraspect, the embodiments allow for existing vulnerability groups to besplit into two different vulnerability groups. In another aspect, theembodiments allow for automatic state synchronization between changerequests and their associated vulnerability groups, such that as achange request progresses through the phases of its lifecycle, thevulnerability group will also be moved through its phases of thelifecycle.

The figures accompanying the following description provide specificexamples of graphical user interfaces. Nonetheless, the embodimentsherein may use different layouts, styles, widgets, and workflows. Forexample, different arrangements of information and different types ofmenus and selection mechanisms may be used.

A. Creating Change Requests for Vulnerability Groups

FIG. 9A depicts an example graphical user interface 900 of avulnerability response application. In particular, graphical userinterface 900 displays the fields and values thereof stored for avulnerability group. For purposes of illustration, some of possiblefields are described below.

Identifier 902 is a unique alphanumeric sequence that can be used tospecify the vulnerability group, in this case VUL0004580. Identifier 902may also be referred to as a vulnerability group number, and is alsoshown in field 904.

Field 906 shows an aggregate risk rating of the vulnerability group. Fora single vulnerable item, this can be based the severity factor ofvulnerability factors 800. Similarly, field 908 shows an aggregate riskscore of the vulnerability group, which can be associated with theoverall risk score calculated from vulnerability factors 800 asdiscussed above. When the vulnerability group contains multiplevulnerable items having different risk ratings and/or risk scores, thehighest risk rating and/or risk score of these may be displayed. Therisk rating and risk score for a vulnerability group may be recalculatedon a periodic basis (e.g., once per day), and thus may not alwaysreflect the latest changes made to the vulnerability group. A riskrating and/or a risk score of a vulnerability group may be collectivelyreferred to herein as a “criticality” or “criticality level” of thevulnerability group.

Field 910 shows an aggregate remediation target time for thevulnerability group. Each vulnerable item may have its own respectiveremediation target time, which specifies when the vulnerable item shouldbe resolved. This time may be determined based on the criticality of thevulnerability group, an enterprise's operating procedures, or anexternal regulation. When the vulnerability group contains multiplevulnerable items having different remediation target times, the earliestremediation target time of these may be displayed. As was the case forrisk rating and risk score, the remediation target time for avulnerability group may be recalculated on a periodic basis (e.g., onceper day), and thus may not always reflect the latest changes made to thevulnerability group.

Field 912 shows the remediation status of the vulnerability group, whichindicates whether the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group weresufficiently addressed by the remediation target time of field 910. Thevalues of field 912 can be approaching target, in-flight, or targetmissed.

Field 914 is a drop-down menu that represents the state of thevulnerability group. This state may be one of open, under investigation,awaiting implementation, resolved, deferred, or closed, for example.

Field 916 shows the assignment group currently assigned to thevulnerability group. The assignment group is an individual or a numberof individuals within the enterprise, such as an IT department. Thepossible values of field 916 may be defined by the enterprise.

Field 918 displays the name of an individual assigned to address thevulnerable items in the vulnerability group. This individual may be anIT professional, perhaps a member of the assignment group shown in field916.

Field 920 shows the time that the vulnerability group was created, andfield 922 shows the time the vulnerability group was last updated. Thevalue of field 922 may be automatically updated whenever a change ismade to the vulnerability group.

Field 924 shows a short description relating to the vulnerability group.This short description may include an indication of the criticality ofthe vulnerable items as well as a reference to a known exploit (e.g.,CVE-2014-6271 from the NIST database) impacting the vulnerability group,if applicable.

Button 926 may be a graphical element that is actuatable to cause achange to graphical user interface 900 or to cause another graphicaluser interface to appear. In the case of button 926, this change is tocause graphical user interface 930 to be displayed.

Graphical user interface 900 may contain additional fields and graphicalelements, and may be arranged in various layouts. Moreover, some fieldsand graphical elements shown in FIG. 9A (such as a number of the buttonsand widget at the top of the figure) are not discussed in detail forpurposes of brevity.

FIG. 9B depicts example graphical user interface 930. As noted,actuating button 926 may cause graphical user interface 930 to appear.

Notably, field 932 is a drop-down menu that can be used to selectbetween whether the new change request applies to all the vulnerableitems of the vulnerability group or only the vulnerable items that matcha set of conditions. If the user chooses to only apply the changerequest to the vulnerable items that match the set of conditions, thevariation of graphical user interface 930 shown in FIG. 9C will beshown. Otherwise, the change request will apply to all vulnerable items.

Field 934 is a check box determining whether to add representations ofthe CIs associated with the vulnerability group to the change request.In some embodiments, a set of CI identifiers will be added so that ITpersonnel can easily determine which computing devices and/or softwareapplications are impacted by the change request.

Field 936 is a drop-down menu that allows selection of the type ofchange request. These types may include emergency, standard, and normal.Herein, the type of the change request may also be referred to as the“urgency” of the change request. Emergency changes should be implementedas soon as possible, for example to resolve a major vulnerability or toimplement an important security patch that addresses a widespreadvulnerability. Standard changes are pre-authorized changes that are lowrisk, relatively common, and follow a well-understood procedure. Forexample, applying regularly-scheduled third-party software patches maybe considered to be standard changes. Normal changes are those that areneither emergency nor standard. In some cases, selection of the type ofchange request can cause more fields to be added to graphical userinterface 930 (these are not shown in FIG. 9B for sake of simplicity).

Button 938 may be a graphical element that is actuatable to cause achange to graphical user interface 930 or to cause another graphicaluser interface to appear. In the case of button 938, this change is tocause graphical user interface 950 to be displayed.

FIG. 9C further illustrates what can be displayed on graphical userinterface 930 when field 932 selects only the vulnerable items in thevulnerability group that match a set of conditions. Particularly,graphical user interface 930 expands to include fields 940 that allowspecification of a condition. The condition may be based on a selectablefield of the vulnerability group, an operator, and possibly a value ofthat field. For example, the field “state”, the operator “is”, and thevalue “open” may be specified. In another example, the field “riskscore”, the operator “greater than”, and the value “90” may bespecified.

Button 942 is a graphical element that allows addition of anothercondition to the filter. Actuation of button 942 may cause graphicaluser interface 930 to display another set of fields similar to fields940. The OR and AND buttons at the end of field 940 (which would also beat the end of the new set of fields added by actuating button 942)allows filter expressions to be built based on Boolean combinations ofconditions. For example, the filter expression “state is open AND riskscore greater than 90” can be formed through use of two conditions. Inthis fashion, arbitrarily complex filter expressions can be specified.

Once a filter expression is defined, actuating button 938 may cause thecreation of a new vulnerability group containing only the vulnerableitems matching the filter expression. Alternatively, actuating button938 may defer the creation of the new vulnerability group until creationof the change request (e.g., via button 960, described below). Thevulnerable items are moved from their current vulnerability group to thenew vulnerability group. The change request is associated with the newvulnerability group. In the case of a preview, graphical user interface930 may provide additional information prior to creating the newvulnerability group, such as providing a list of vulnerable items thatwould be placed in that vulnerability group. In some cases, a previewlist of vulnerable items matching the condition may be displayed beforethe change request is created.

Regardless of how it is created, a change request may include a numberof fields. Advantageously, the system may present a preview of thesefields before prompting the user to create the change request. FIG. 9Ddepicts such a preview for a change request with a change type ofemergency.

Particularly, graphical user interface 950 is a preview that may be anew graphical user interface or an expansion upon graphical userinterface 930. Notably, graphical user interface 950 includes theinformation from graphical user interface 930, as well as otherinformation that is auto-populated from the vulnerability group.

Field 952 is labeled “Priority” and may be based on the risk ratingand/or risk score of fields 906 and 908, respectively. As was the casefor fields 906 and 908, the value placed in field 952 may be anaggregate over a number of vulnerable items that are associated with thechange request. For a single vulnerable item, this value can be basedthe severity factor of vulnerability factors 800. When the vulnerabilitygroup contains multiple vulnerable items having different risk ratingsand/or risk scores, the highest risk rating and/or risk score of thesemay be displayed.

Field 954 is labelled “Planned end date” and may be based on theremediation target of field 910. As was the case for field 910, thevalue placed in field 954 may be an aggregate over a number ofvulnerable items that are associated with the change request. This timemay be determined based on the criticality of the vulnerability group,an enterprise's operating procedures, or an external regulation. Whenthe vulnerability group contains multiple vulnerable items havingdifferent remediation target times, the earliest remediation target timeof these may be displayed in field 954.

Notably, the values for fields 952 and 954 may be recalculated at thetime of change request creation, and may only consider certainvulnerable items that are associated with the change request. Forexample, just vulnerable items matching a filter that is optionallyspecified as described above and/or vulnerable items in one or more of aparticular set of states (e.g., open, under investigation, and awaitingimplementation, but not resolved, deferred, or closed) may be used forthe recalculations. This allows the priorities and planned end dates fora change request to more accurately reflect the risk, criticality, andremediation deadlines of the relevant underlying vulnerable items.

Field 956 provides an auto-populated justification for the changerequest. Certain values appearing in the text of the justification areparameterized. For example, the indication that the change request isrequired to address 9 vulnerabilities may be automatically generatedbased on the number of vulnerabilities of the vulnerable itemsassociated with the change request. Further, the indication that thesevulnerabilities impact 10 CIs may also be automatically generated basedon the number of CIs associated with the change request. Additionally,the indication of the risk rating (highest of all vulnerable items) andthe target remediation date (earliest of all vulnerable items) may beautomatically generated as discussed above.

Field 958 is labelled “implementation plan” and may contain adescription of the preferred solution to be implemented as the change.For example, the implementation plan shown involves applying anoperating system patch to address the vulnerabilities. The informationshown in field 958 may be obtained from the vulnerability group or aninternal or external database related to the vulnerabilities in thevulnerability group.

Button 960 (appearing at two places in graphical user interface 950) isa graphical element that is actuatable to create the change request withthe values shown. As indicated in graphical user interface 950, any ofthe text fields may be edited by a user before the change request iscreated. Actuation of button 960 may result in the change request beingadded to the change request database, and also may result in graphicaluser interface 970 being displayed.

FIG. 9E depicts graphical user interface 970, which confirms thecreation of a new change request with the data as displayed in graphicaluser interface 950. Notably, the new change request is given a uniquechange request identifier (as shown in field 972) so that the changerequest can be tracked. In some cases, graphical user interface 970 mayinclude options to display a list of vulnerable items and/or CIsassociated with the change request.

FIG. 9F depicts graphical user interface 980, which is an alternativeversion of graphical user interface 950. Particularly, graphical userinterface 980 is a preview for a change request with a change type ofstandard. As such, fields 982 and 984 indicate that the change categoryis “Patching Standard Changes” and the change template is “MicrodyneMonthly Patching Cycle”. A change template may be a framework for changerequests that are expected to repeat, and may contain a predefined setof fields and possibly some common values pre-populated therein.Implementation plan 958 is omitted for purposes of simplicity.

B. Associating Vulnerability Groups to Existing Change Requests

In additional embodiments, rather than creating a new change request forassociation with some or all vulnerable items in a vulnerability group,an existing change request may be associated with the vulnerabilitygroup. This conveniently allows multiple vulnerability groups to beassociated with the same change request.

FIG. 10A shows example graphical user interface 1000, which provides aslightly different view of a vulnerability group. In addition to otherinformation, graphical user interface 1000 displays a tabbed section1002 entitled “Related Links”. The tab for “Change Requests” isselected, which displays a list of change requests associated with thevulnerability group in section 1004. Currently, this list is empty.

Button 1006 is a graphical element that is actuatable to allow the userto associate an existing change request with the vulnerability group.Actuation of button 1006 may cause a search interface to be displayed,prompting the user to enter information related to a change request.Afterward, graphical user interface 1010 to be displayed.

FIG. 10B shows example graphical user interface 1010, which allowssearching of change requests by change request number (which may be aunique identifier of a change request) as well as text from the shortdescriptions of change requests. Field 1014 is a text box that allowsentry and searching of change request numbers, while field 1016 is atext box that allows entry and searching by short description.

As shown in FIG. 10B, field 1016 contains the entered text string“*Microdyne*” which uses a pair of wild card characters (*) to searchfor any short description containing the text “Microdyne”. Searchresults 1018 shows three change requests matching this search. Asindicated by button 1020 being colored in, change request CHG0003516 isselected for association with the vulnerability group.

Actuation of button 1022, another actuatable graphical element, maycause the association to take place. Once associated, the database entryfor the vulnerability group may contain a reference to the changerequest and/or the database entry for the change request may contain areference to the vulnerability group.

FIG. 10C shows example graphical user interface 1030 with thevulnerability group showing the added change request. Particularly,notifications 1032 indicate that the association has taken place andthat the vulnerability group's state has been automatically changed to“awaiting implementation”. Automatic state changes will be discussed inmore detail below.

Line item 1034 shows the change request as being associated with thevulnerability group, including the change request's short description,type, state, planned start date, planned end date, requestor, andindividual or group to which it is assigned. From example graphical userinterface 1030, more change requests can be associated with thevulnerability group, the existing change requests can be disassociatedwith the vulnerability group, or other actions can be taken.

C. Splitting Vulnerability Groups

As discussed above, a vulnerability group can be split into twovulnerability groups by creating a new change request and using a filterexpression to associate the change request with a subset of thevulnerable items in a vulnerability group. The vulnerable items thatmatch the filter expression are moved to a new vulnerability group,while the vulnerable items that do not match the filter expressionremain in the original vulnerability group. Vulnerability groups canalso be split without creating a new change request. This sectiondescribes two methods for doing so.

Regarding the first method, FIG. 11A shows example graphical userinterface 1100, which is similar to graphical user interface 900.Notably, button 1102 is a graphical element actuatable to split thedisplayed vulnerability group into two vulnerability groups. Actuatingbutton 1102 may cause graphical user interface 1110 to appear.

FIG. 11B shows graphical user interface 1110, which allows a filterexpression to be specified. The specification may be similar to themechanisms described in the context of FIG. 9C. For example, fields 1112may be used to define one or more conditions that can be combined usingBoolean operators into a Boolean filter expression.

Buttons 1114 and 1116 may be graphical elements actuatable to finalizesplitting the vulnerability group based on the filter. Thus, in responseto such actuation, a new vulnerability group is created and vulnerableitems matching the filter expression are moved to the new vulnerabilitygroup. Further, the actuation may cause example graphical user interface1120 to appear.

FIG. 11C depicts graphical user interface 1120, which displays thenewly-created vulnerability group. Field 1122 shows that thisvulnerability group has a different number (identifier) than theoriginal vulnerability group. Notification 1124 indicates that fivevulnerable items were moved to this vulnerability group. Otherwise, thenew vulnerability group inherits many of the same properties as theoriginal vulnerability group.

Regarding the second method, FIG. 11D shows example graphical userinterface 1130. Of note is selectable tab 1132 that displays list 1134of vulnerable items. By selecting checkboxes to the left of one or morevulnerable items in this list, these vulnerable items may be designatedfor moving to the new vulnerability group. For instance, selection ofthe split group option from drop-down menu 1136 may cause the newvulnerability group to be created and the selected vulnerable itemsmoved thereto. Doing so may cause graphical user interface 1120 toappear. There is no need to specify a filter expression with this secondmethod.

D. State Synchronization Between Vulnerability Groups and ChangeRequests

In some embodiments, a state transition of a change request mayautomatically cause a state transition in one or more vulnerabilitygroups associated with the change request. FIG. 12 depicts examples ofthis state synchronization.

This figure shows a linear representation of possible vulnerabilitygroup states 1200. Thus, vulnerability groups may begin in the openstate, and then canonically transition to the under investigation state,the awaiting implementation state (or the deferred state), the resolvedstate, and then the closed state. But this representation is simplified,and more transitions than are shown might exist. For example, avulnerability group in the resolved state may be transitioned back tothe under investigation state if it is determined that the resolutiondid not properly address the vulnerable items.

Similarly, this figure also shows a linear representation of possiblechange request states 1202. Thus, change requests may begin in the newstate, and then canonically transition to the assess state, theauthorize state, the scheduled state, the implement state, the reviewstate, the closed state, and/or the cancelled state. But thisrepresentation is simplified, and more transitions than are shown mightexist.

As represented by arrow 1204 and the box to its left, when a new changerequest is created and associated with a vulnerability group, thevulnerability group may be automatically transitioned to the awaitingimplementation state. Likewise, and as represented by arrow 1206 and thebox to its right, when a change request associated with a vulnerabilitygroup transitions from the implement state to the review state, thevulnerability group may be automatically transitioned to the resolvedstate.

Other state synchronizations are possible. For example, if a changerequest transitions to the cancelled state, then the vulnerability groupmay automatically transition to under investigation.

When multiple change requests are associated with the same vulnerabilitygroup, only the state of the change request in the earliest state of thelinear representation might be used to determine vulnerability groupstate transitions. Thus, if there are three change requests associatedwith a vulnerability group and two have transitioned to the review stateand the third is still in the scheduled state, the vulnerability groupmay remain in the awaiting implementation state until the thirdtransitions to the review state. Like, if the earliest change request isdeleted, the next earliest change request may be found and used todetermine the vulnerability group state.

By synchronizing change request and vulnerability group state in thisfashion, vulnerability group state more accurately reflects the actualstatus of the associated change requests. This provides for a higherlevel of security and automation on the managed network, asvulnerabilities are more likely to be properly addressed in a timelyfashion.

E. Other Features

In addition to the features above, the embodiments herein may exhibitother functionality. Some this functionality is described below.

One possible feature is that, after a change request is associated witha vulnerability group, a user (e.g., the user making the association oran administrator) is automatically notified if there are conflictsbetween this change request and other change requests already associatedwith the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group. This may involvethe computational instance checking if any planned implementation times(e.g., the planned end date or remediation target is within apre-determined range (e.g., 1 hour, 6 hours, 12 hours, 1 day, 7 days, 30days, etc.) of that of another change request impacting at least some ofthe same vulnerable items. The user may be warned of a possiblescheduling conflict between the change requests. In another example, theuser may be notified if there is no available maintenance window formaking changes to the CIs impacted by the change request in the timeframe in which the change request is targeted for completion. The usermay further be notified of the next available window of time to performthe change.

Another possible feature is that a change request may automatically begenerated based on the risk rating, risk score, and/or criticality ofthe vulnerability group. Other factors may also be taken intoconsideration, such as the specific CIs impacted, to whom thevulnerability group is assigned, and/or exposure of the CIs. Forexample, a vulnerability group with a risk score of at least 90 with oneor more externally exposed CIs may result in a change request beingautomatically created so that the vulnerabilities to which these CIs aresubject can be mitigated.

Further, rules could be defined to decide when change requests will becreated automatically. Thus, standard change requests (that arepre-approved and in some cases automatically deployed) could takeadvantage of the automatic creation of the change requests, to addtremendous efficiencies due to both the creation and the deployment ofchange requests being automated.

Yet another possible feature is to identify when a new change requestaddresses one or more of the same vulnerabilities that are alreadyscheduled for mitigation by another change request. As an example, if 60of 100 vulnerable items are scheduled have a patch applied in three daysand a user creates a new change request to apply the patch to the 100vulnerable items, the system may detect this overlap and suggest to theuser that the new change request should only apply to the 40 vulnerableitems that are not yet scheduled to be patched. Such an overlap may bebased on information in implementation plan associated with changerequests.

VIII. EXAMPLE OPERATIONS

FIG. 13 is a flow chart illustrating an example embodiment. The processillustrated by FIG. 13 may be carried out by a computing device, such ascomputing device 100, and/or a cluster of computing devices, such asserver cluster 200. However, the process can be carried out by othertypes of devices or device subsystems, such as a computational instanceof a remote network management platform. For example, the process couldbe carried out by a portable computer, such as a laptop or a tabletdevice.

The embodiments of FIG. 13 may be simplified by the removal of any oneor more of the features shown therein. Further, these embodiments may becombined with features, aspects, and/or implementations of any of theprevious figures or otherwise described herein.

Block 1300 may involve generating a representation of a first graphicaluser interface containing, for a vulnerability group: (i) an identifier,(ii) a criticality level, (iii) a target remediation time, (iv) a shortdescription, and (v) a first graphical element for specifying acorresponding change request, wherein persistent storage contains aplurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of change requests,wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned to thevulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable items represent hardware orsoftware components of a managed network that exhibit knownvulnerabilities, and wherein the change requests represent additions,removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components of themanaged network.

Block 1302 may involve providing, to a client device associated with themanaged network, the representation of the first graphical userinterface.

Block 1304 may involve, possibly in response to receiving, from theclient device, an indication that the first graphical element wasactuated, generating a representation of a second graphical userinterface that allows specification of change request options including:(i) whether the corresponding change request applies to some or allvulnerable items assigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) anindication of an urgency of the corresponding change request.

Block 1306 may involve providing, to the client device, therepresentation of the second graphical user interface.

Block 1308 may involve, possibly in response to receiving, from theclient device, an indication that the change request options werespecified, generating a representation of a third graphical userinterface with data entry fields that are auto-populated withinformation based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) the criticality level,(iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the short description, andwherein the third graphical user interface also contains a secondgraphical element for creating the corresponding change request.

Block 1310 may involve providing, to the client device, therepresentation of the third graphical user interface.

Block 1312 may involve, possibly in response to receiving, from theclient device, an indication that the second graphical element wasactuated, adding the corresponding change request to the plurality ofchange requests.

In some embodiments, the criticality level as appearing in the thirdgraphical user interface is a highest criticality level of allvulnerable items in the vulnerability group, wherein the targetremediation time appearing in the third graphical user interface is anearliest target remediation time of all vulnerable items in thevulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the data entry fields of the third graphical userinterface are also auto-populated with further information based on anumber of the known vulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in thevulnerability group, and a number of the hardware or software componentsof the managed network impacted by the known vulnerabilities of thevulnerable items in the vulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the data entry fields of the third graphical userinterface are also auto-populated with further information based on asoftware patch that, when applied, addresses at least some of the knownvulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the indication of the urgency of the correspondingchange request is either standard, emergency, or normal, wherein astandard change request relates to pre-approved changes based onsoftware patch cycles of a third party, wherein an emergency changerequest relates to changes that should be applied expeditiously, andwherein a normal change request relates to changes that are neitherstandard nor emergency.

In some embodiments, the change request options specify that thecorresponding change request applies to some of the vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group. These embodiments may furtherinvolve: (i) modifying the second graphical user interface to includefilter options that allow specification of a filter expression thatdefines a subset of the vulnerable items assigned to the vulnerabilitygroup; (ii) modifying the second graphical user interface to include apreview option to preview the subset of the vulnerable items; and (iii)also in response to receiving, from the client device, the indicationthat the change request options were specified, creating a newvulnerability group and moving the subset of the vulnerable items to thenew vulnerability group, wherein the corresponding change request isapplicable to the new vulnerability group, and wherein the data entryfields of the third graphical user interface are auto-populated withinformation based on the subset of the vulnerable items.

In some embodiments, the representation of the first graphical userinterface also contains a third graphical element for associating one ormore of the change requests to the vulnerability group. Theseembodiments may further involve, possibly in response to receiving, fromthe client device, an indication that the third graphical element wasactuated, generating representations of one or more further graphicaluser interfaces that include options that allow: searching of theplurality of change requests, specification of the one or more changerequests to be associated with the vulnerability group, and adding theone or more change requests to the vulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the first graphical user interface also contains athird graphical element for splitting the vulnerability group. Theseembodiments may further involve, possibly in response to receiving, fromthe client device, the indication that the third graphical element wasactuated, generating representations of one or more further graphicaluser interfaces that include options that allow: specification of afilter expression that defines a subset of the vulnerable items assignedto the vulnerability group, selection of a preview indicating the subsetof the vulnerable items, creation of a new vulnerability group, andsplitting of the vulnerability group so that the subset of thevulnerable items are moved to the new vulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the first graphical user interface also contains anoption for specification of a subset of the vulnerable items from alisting of the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group. Theseembodiments may further involve, possibly in response to receiving, fromthe client device, the specification of the subset of the vulnerableitems, creating a new vulnerability group and splitting thevulnerability group so that the subset of the vulnerable items are movedto the new vulnerability group.

In some embodiments, the vulnerability group can be in one of aplurality of possible states including an awaiting implementation stateindicating that a plan for addressing the known vulnerabilities of thevulnerable items in the vulnerability group has been established,wherein the vulnerability group was not in the awaiting implementationstate before generating the representation of the third graphical userinterface, and wherein adding the corresponding change request to theplurality of change requests causes the vulnerability group totransition to the awaiting implementation state.

In some embodiments, the vulnerability group can be in one of aplurality of possible states including a resolved state indicating thatthe known vulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in the vulnerabilitygroup have been resolved, wherein the vulnerability group was not in theresolved state when the corresponding change request was added to theplurality of change requests, wherein the corresponding change requestcan be in a second plurality of possible states including an implementedstate indicating that the corresponding change request has beenimplemented in the managed network, and wherein transitioning thecorresponding change request to the implemented state causes thevulnerability group to transition to the resolved state.

IX. CONCLUSION

The present disclosure is not to be limited in terms of the particularembodiments described in this application, which are intended asillustrations of various aspects. Many modifications and variations canbe made without departing from its scope, as will be apparent to thoseskilled in the art. Functionally equivalent methods and apparatuseswithin the scope of the disclosure, in addition to those describedherein, will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoingdescriptions. Such modifications and variations are intended to fallwithin the scope of the appended claims.

The above detailed description describes various features and operationsof the disclosed systems, devices, and methods with reference to theaccompanying figures. The example embodiments described herein and inthe figures are not meant to be limiting. Other embodiments can beutilized, and other changes can be made, without departing from thescope of the subject matter presented herein. It will be readilyunderstood that the aspects of the present disclosure, as generallydescribed herein, and illustrated in the figures, can be arranged,substituted, combined, separated, and designed in a wide variety ofdifferent configurations.

With respect to any or all of the message flow diagrams, scenarios, andflow charts in the figures and as discussed herein, each step, block,and/or communication can represent a processing of information and/or atransmission of information in accordance with example embodiments.Alternative embodiments are included within the scope of these exampleembodiments. In these alternative embodiments, for example, operationsdescribed as steps, blocks, transmissions, communications, requests,responses, and/or messages can be executed out of order from that shownor discussed, including substantially concurrently or in reverse order,depending on the functionality involved. Further, more or fewer blocksand/or operations can be used with any of the message flow diagrams,scenarios, and flow charts discussed herein, and these message flowdiagrams, scenarios, and flow charts can be combined with one another,in part or in whole.

A step or block that represents a processing of information cancorrespond to circuitry that can be configured to perform the specificlogical functions of a herein-described method or technique.Alternatively or additionally, a step or block that represents aprocessing of information can correspond to a module, a segment, or aportion of program code (including related data). The program code caninclude one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical operations or actions in the method ortechnique. The program code and/or related data can be stored on anytype of computer readable medium such as a storage device including RAM,a disk drive, a solid state drive, or another storage medium.

The computer readable medium can also include non-transitory computerreadable media such as computer readable media that store data for shortperiods of time like register memory and processor cache. The computerreadable media can further include non-transitory computer readablemedia that store program code and/or data for longer periods of time.Thus, the computer readable media may include secondary or persistentlong term storage, like ROM, optical or magnetic disks, solid statedrives, or compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. Thecomputer readable media can also be any other volatile or non-volatilestorage systems. A computer readable medium can be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device.

Moreover, a step or block that represents one or more informationtransmissions can correspond to information transmissions betweensoftware and/or hardware modules in the same physical device. However,other information transmissions can be between software modules and/orhardware modules in different physical devices.

The particular arrangements shown in the figures should not be viewed aslimiting. It should be understood that other embodiments can includemore or less of each element shown in a given figure. Further, some ofthe illustrated elements can be combined or omitted. Yet further, anexample embodiment can include elements that are not illustrated in thefigures.

While various aspects and embodiments have been disclosed herein, otheraspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art.The various aspects and embodiments disclosed herein are for purpose ofillustration and are not intended to be limiting, with the true scopebeing indicated by the following claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computational instance comprising: persistentstorage containing a plurality of vulnerable items and a plurality ofchange requests, wherein at least some of the vulnerable items areassigned to a vulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable itemsrepresent hardware or software components of a managed network thatexhibit known vulnerabilities, wherein the change requests representadditions, removals, or modifications of the hardware or softwarecomponents of the managed network, and wherein the managed network isassociated with the computational instance; and one or more computingdevices configured to: generate a representation of a first graphicaluser interface containing, for the vulnerability group: (i) anidentifier, (ii) a criticality level, (iii) a target remediation time,(iv) a short description, and (v) a first graphical element forspecifying a corresponding change request; provide, to a client deviceassociated with the managed network, the representation of the firstgraphical user interface; in response to receiving, from the clientdevice, an indication that the first graphical element was actuated,generate a representation of a second graphical user interface thatallows specification of change request options including: (i) whetherthe corresponding change request applies to some or all vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) an indication of anurgency of the corresponding change request; provide, to the clientdevice, the representation of the second graphical user interface; inresponse to receiving, from the client device, an indication that thechange request options were specified, generate a representation of athird graphical user interface with data entry fields that areauto-populated with information based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) thecriticality level, (iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the shortdescription, and wherein the third graphical user interface alsocontains a second graphical element for creating the correspondingchange request; provide, to the client device, the representation of thethird graphical user interface; and in response to receiving, from theclient device, an indication that the second graphical element wasactuated, add the corresponding change request to the plurality ofchange requests.
 2. The computational instance of claim 1, wherein thecriticality level as appearing in the third graphical user interface isa highest criticality level of all vulnerable items in the vulnerabilitygroup, and wherein the target remediation time appearing in the thirdgraphical user interface is an earliest target remediation time of allvulnerable items in the vulnerability group.
 3. The computationalinstance of claim 1, wherein the data entry fields of the thirdgraphical user interface are also auto-populated with furtherinformation based on a number of the known vulnerabilities of thevulnerable items in the vulnerability group, and a number of thehardware or software components of the managed network impacted by theknown vulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in the vulnerabilitygroup.
 4. The computational instance of claim 1, wherein the data entryfields of the third graphical user interface are also auto-populatedwith further information based on a software patch that, when applied,addresses at least some of the known vulnerabilities of the vulnerableitems in the vulnerability group.
 5. The computational instance of claim1, wherein the indication of the urgency of the corresponding changerequest is either standard, emergency, or normal, wherein a standardchange request relates to pre-approved changes based on software patchcycles of a third party, wherein an emergency change request relates tochanges that should be applied expeditiously, and wherein a normalchange request relates to changes that are neither standard noremergency.
 6. The computational instance of claim 1, wherein the changerequest options specify that the corresponding change request applies tosome of the vulnerable items assigned to the vulnerability group, andwherein the one or more computing devices are further configured to:modify the second graphical user interface to include filter optionsthat allow specification of a filter expression that defines a subset ofthe vulnerable items assigned to the vulnerability group; modify thesecond graphical user interface to include a preview option to previewthe subset of the vulnerable items; and also in response to receiving,from the client device, the indication that the change request optionswere specified, create a new vulnerability group and moving the subsetof the vulnerable items to the new vulnerability group, wherein thecorresponding change request is applicable to the new vulnerabilitygroup, and wherein the data entry fields of the third graphical userinterface are auto-populated with information based on the subset of thevulnerable items.
 7. The computational instance of claim 1, wherein therepresentation of the first graphical user interface also contains athird graphical element for associating one or more of the changerequests to the vulnerability group, and wherein the one or morecomputing devices are further configured to: in response to receiving,from the client device, an indication that the third graphical elementwas actuated, generate representations of one or more further graphicaluser interfaces that include options that allow: searching of theplurality of change requests, specification of the one or more changerequests to be associated with the vulnerability group, and adding theone or more change requests to the vulnerability group.
 8. Thecomputational instance of claim 1, wherein the first graphical userinterface also contains a third graphical element for splitting thevulnerability group, and wherein the one or more computing devices arefurther configured to: in response to receiving, from the client device,the indication that the third graphical element was actuated, generaterepresentations of one or more further graphical user interfaces thatinclude options that allow: specification of a filter expression thatdefines a subset of the vulnerable items assigned to the vulnerabilitygroup, selection of a preview indicating the subset of the vulnerableitems, creation of a new vulnerability group, and splitting thevulnerability group so that the subset of the vulnerable items are movedto the new vulnerability group.
 9. The computational instance of claim1, wherein the first graphical user interface also contains an optionfor specification of a subset of the vulnerable items from a listing ofthe vulnerable items in the vulnerability group, and wherein the one ormore computing devices are further configured to: in response toreceiving, from the client device, the specification of the subset ofthe vulnerable items, create a new vulnerability group and split thevulnerability group so that the subset of the vulnerable items are movedto the new vulnerability group.
 10. The computational instance of claim1, wherein the vulnerability group can be in one of a plurality ofpossible states including an awaiting implementation state indicatingthat a plan for addressing the known vulnerabilities of the vulnerableitems in the vulnerability group has been established, wherein thevulnerability group was not in the awaiting implementation state beforegenerating the representation of the third graphical user interface, andwherein adding the corresponding change request to the plurality ofchange requests causes the vulnerability group to transition to theawaiting implementation state.
 11. The computational instance of claim1, wherein the vulnerability group can be in one of a plurality ofpossible states including a resolved state indicating that the knownvulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group havebeen resolved, wherein the vulnerability group was not in the resolvedstate when the corresponding change request was added to the pluralityof change requests, wherein the corresponding change request can be in asecond plurality of possible states including an implemented stateindicating that the corresponding change request has been implemented inthe managed network, and wherein transitioning the corresponding changerequest to the implemented state causes the vulnerability group totransition to the resolved state.
 12. A computer-implemented methodcomprising: generating a representation of a first graphical userinterface containing, for a vulnerability group: (i) an identifier, (ii)a criticality level, (iii) a target remediation time, (iv) a shortdescription, and (v) a first graphical element for specifying acorresponding change request, wherein persistent storage contains aplurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of change requests,wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned to thevulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable items represent hardware orsoftware components of a managed network that exhibit knownvulnerabilities, and wherein the change requests represent additions,removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components of themanaged network; providing, to a client device associated with themanaged network, the representation of the first graphical userinterface; in response to receiving, from the client device, anindication that the first graphical element was actuated, generating arepresentation of a second graphical user interface that allowsspecification of change request options including: (i) whether thecorresponding change request applies to some or all vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) an indication of anurgency of the corresponding change request; providing, to the clientdevice, the representation of the second graphical user interface; inresponse to receiving, from the client device, an indication that thechange request options were specified, generating a representation of athird graphical user interface with data entry fields that areauto-populated with information based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) thecriticality level, (iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the shortdescription, and wherein the third graphical user interface alsocontains a second graphical element for creating the correspondingchange request; providing, to the client device, the representation ofthe third graphical user interface; and in response to receiving, fromthe client device, an indication that the second graphical element wasactuated, adding the corresponding change request to the plurality ofchange requests.
 13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12,wherein the data entry fields of the third graphical user interface arealso auto-populated with further information based on a number of theknown vulnerabilities of the vulnerable items in the vulnerabilitygroup, and a number of the hardware or software components of themanaged network impacted by the known vulnerabilities of the vulnerableitems in the vulnerability group.
 14. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 12, wherein the change request options specify that thecorresponding change request applies to some of the vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group, the computer-implemented methodfurther comprising: modifying the second graphical user interface toinclude filter options that allow specification of a filter expressionthat defines a subset of the vulnerable items assigned to thevulnerability group; modifying the second graphical user interface toinclude a preview option to preview the subset of the vulnerable items;and also in response to receiving, from the client device, theindication that the change request options were specified, creating anew vulnerability group and moving the subset of the vulnerable items tothe new vulnerability group, wherein the corresponding change request isapplicable to the new vulnerability group, and wherein the data entryfields of the third graphical user interface are auto-populated withinformation based on the subset of the vulnerable items.
 15. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the representation ofthe first graphical user interface also contains a third graphicalelement for associating one or more of the change requests to thevulnerability group, the computer-implemented method further comprising:in response to receiving, from the client device, an indication that thethird graphical element was actuated, generating representations of oneor more further graphical user interfaces that include options thatallow: searching of the plurality of change requests, specification ofthe one or more change requests to be associated with the vulnerabilitygroup, and adding the one or more change requests to the vulnerabilitygroup.
 16. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein thefirst graphical user interface also contains a third graphical elementfor splitting the vulnerability group, the computer-implemented methodfurther comprising: in response to receiving, from the client device,the indication that the third graphical element was actuated, generatingrepresentations of one or more further graphical user interfaces thatinclude options that allow: specification of a filter expression thatdefines a subset of the vulnerable items assigned to the vulnerabilitygroup, selection of a preview indicating the subset of the vulnerableitems, creation of a new vulnerability group, and splitting thevulnerability group so that the subset of the vulnerable items are movedto the new vulnerability group.
 17. The computer-implemented method ofclaim 12, wherein the first graphical user interface also contains anoption for specification of a subset of the vulnerable items from alisting of the vulnerable items in the vulnerability group, thecomputer-implemented method further comprising: in response toreceiving, from the client device, the specification of the subset ofthe vulnerable items, creating a new vulnerability group and splittingthe vulnerability group so that the subset of the vulnerable items aremoved to the new vulnerability group.
 18. The computer-implementedmethod of claim 12, wherein the vulnerability group can be in one of aplurality of possible states including an awaiting implementation stateindicating that a plan for addressing the known vulnerabilities of thevulnerable items in the vulnerability group has been established,wherein the vulnerability group was not in the awaiting implementationstate before generating the representation of the third graphical userinterface, and wherein adding the corresponding change request to theplurality of change requests causes the vulnerability group totransition to the awaiting implementation state.
 19. Thecomputer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the vulnerability groupcan be in one of a plurality of possible states including a resolvedstate indicating that the known vulnerabilities of the vulnerable itemsin the vulnerability group have been resolved, wherein the vulnerabilitygroup was not in the resolved state when the corresponding changerequest was added to the plurality of change requests, wherein thecorresponding change request can be in a second plurality of possiblestates including an implemented state indicating that the correspondingchange request has been implemented in the managed network, and whereintransitioning the corresponding change request to the implemented statecauses the vulnerability group to transition to the resolved state. 20.An article of manufacture including a non-transitory computer-readablemedium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon executionby a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operationscomprising: generating a representation of a first graphical userinterface containing, for a vulnerability group: (i) an identifier, (ii)a criticality level, (iii) a target remediation time, (iv) a shortdescription, and (v) a first graphical element for specifying acorresponding change request, wherein persistent storage contains aplurality of vulnerable items and a plurality of change requests,wherein at least some of the vulnerable items are assigned to thevulnerability group, wherein the vulnerable items represent hardware orsoftware components of a managed network that exhibit knownvulnerabilities, and wherein the change requests represent additions,removals, or modifications of the hardware or software components of themanaged network; providing, to a client device associated with themanaged network, the representation of the first graphical userinterface; in response to receiving, from the client device, anindication that the first graphical element was actuated, generating arepresentation of a second graphical user interface that allowsspecification of change request options including: (i) whether thecorresponding change request applies to some or all vulnerable itemsassigned to the vulnerability group, and (ii) an indication of anurgency of the corresponding change request; providing, to the clientdevice, the representation of the second graphical user interface; inresponse to receiving, from the client device, an indication that thechange request options were specified, generating a representation of athird graphical user interface with data entry fields that areauto-populated with information based on: (i) the identifier, (ii) thecriticality level, (iii) the target remediation time, and (iv) the shortdescription, and wherein the third graphical user interface alsocontains a second graphical element for creating the correspondingchange request; providing, to the client device, the representation ofthe third graphical user interface; and in response to receiving, fromthe client device, an indication that the second graphical element wasactuated, adding the corresponding change request to the plurality ofchange requests.